Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon R vs Zodiac Knight Saint Seiya
by Psychoblue
Summary: A pilot for a second season of PGSM a Tokusatsu adaptation of Saint Seiya. The Sailor Senshi cross paths with the Bronze Saints, which means it's time for the legendary "Super Hero Time!" But, can the two sides get over their personal differences with each other long enough to work together against a united front of their enemies?
1. Act I

"Hm?"

It was only for a brief moment, a quick flicker that disappeared as quickly as it came, but Setsuna Meioh definitely sensed it. An enormous spirit energy, comparable to the Princess herself, that came and went as a quick blip. But enough that although it was only a quick moment, she could differentiate it. It didn't belong to the Princess, nor did it belong to a decisively evil entity as it lacked malicious intent.

The blip was just enough to tell Setsuna that it was someone who let his or her guard down, just a moment, because she was trying to mask that power from others.

Setsuna scanned the metro car to see if she could perhaps identify where it came from. It was the late evening in Tokyo, so the car was as packed as it always was at this time of day. Teenagers on their cell phones, mothers and fathers tending to their children, adults checking their watches: it wasn't exactly noisy, but there was enough background noise from the speeding train along with all of the smaller noises to allow Setsuna's mysterious quarry to blend in and get lost in the veil.

There was nothing unusual, and Setsuna was about to chalk the blip as something she imagined, but then the next stop came, and that same energy signature flashed in her brain. Her eyes darted to the car, now certain that whoever triggered it had reached their stop...and finally, she caught a glimpse of who it was. It was one of the teenagers on her cell phone, with a peculiarly dark shade of lavender hair going down to her waist, flowing through the air as she rode the wave of humanity out of the car.

The energy she gave off was not malicious, and in fact was somewhere on the opposite end. It was a power of light, similar to what Setsuna's comrades would give off when they were forced to show their colors. Because of this, Setsuna did not classify her as an enemy and did not make a serious effort to pursue her, but took note of the name on her identification card she had clipped to her school uniform in case the girl was someone that she'd have to encounter later. The door closed, and Setsuna was again racing to her own stop, and she allowed herself to get lost in her thoughts once more.

As a doctor, Setsuna was already sworn to an oath of confidentiality, so being the primary physician of Princess Serenity's infant daughter was something that she kept as a secret along with her other patients' privacy. In addition, she also took great care in making sure that no one knew of what she did when she was off work, where she could have the freedom to engage in her real job. So when someone slipped a note in her purse at one of the nearby bars, calling her by her nighttime alias, Setsuna took it upon herself to meet the problem head-on, as she would an enemy.

For the first time since her days in med school, Setsuna Meioh was dressed to go on a blind date.  
As her stop came up, Setsuna stepped out of the metro car as quickly as she could in her high heels and party dress and made her way to the nearby restaurant that was listed on the note. She had been to this restaurant before, as med school had reserved it for her class' graduation ceremony. It was a Greek establishment, with a great deal of Mediterranean dishes and drinks to choose from. The food wasn't terrible, but it wasn't a place that she would frequent alone, and so she hadn't returned to it until that evening. As Setsuna arrived and walked through the revolving doors, she reminded herself that she would have to make sure her host paid for her drinks as well as her food.

"...yes, Dr. Meioh, he's been expecting you. Right this way."

After stating her name and mentioning the reservation listed in the note, Setsuna was led to her host's table where one of the waiters graciously pulled a seat for her and allowed her to sit down. With a polite bow of her head, Setsuna watched the waiter leave before turning to her host and finally catching an uninterrupted glimpse of the man who knew her secret. Physically he was quite attractive, with very soft features and pale skin, along with soft lavender hair tied back in a ponytail, two dark birthmarks on his forehead, and teashade glasses with frames that seemed as expensive as his pinstriped shirt and vest.

"...the Bacchus."

Setsuna raised an eyebrow as her host's sudden statement. "I...beg your pardon?"

"It's the best wine they offer here," the man explained with a voice as soft as his features, lacking the malicious intent that Setsuna expected someone who knew her true name would have. Perhaps he was not an enemy, but an ally that she might have had in a previous life, which was certainly not uncommon for a Sailor Senshi to have. "When I worked out of Greece, I was stationed close to its distillery. After they bottle the wine, they store it in a secret locker for exactly one hundred years, and then that generation removes it to be shipped. It's a family business, run by centuries of honest, kind folk."

"Mmm...I think that sounds delicious," Setsuna replied with a smile. "Since you're buying me a drink, I suppose I owe you a proper introduction. I'm Dr. Setsuna Meioh...to whom do I owe the pleasure of being treated to such an expensive dinner?"

"My answer...is a bit of a multiple choice. When I'm signing my checks and making press conferences at my company, I'm Mutsuki Zeto...the founder and CEO of Zamir Industries."

Setsuna's smile faded as she looked to her menu as the waiter came back to check on what they wanted. Zamir Industries was a company that was on the surface a technology firm that had its hand in several different markets, but was usually in the news because they had a new weapon to show off to the public. Even though her day job didn't necessitate looking into its activities, Setsuna always kept tabs on Zamir in case her enemy decided to use human technology to wreak havoc. How very typical that a handsome man who bought her dinner was the mastermind of an outfit like that.

Mutsuki grinned as Setsuna buried her head into the menu. "If you think I'm offended, don't worry. I know my company's innovations need to be moved back towards the humanitarian causes rather than military, but I think we've made some good progress. Like the wine we'll be ordering this evening, my tribe's origins are humble and our intentions pure. We were the best blacksmiths in Europe, and I'm trying to keep my tribe's traditions alive with my work."

Setsuna lowered her menu and looked back at Mutsuki. She checked for that flicker of bad intentions, but again it was absent. She couldn't tell if he was a fool or not, but she did sense that he was hiding something from her. He had to have been if he knew her true name. "I can certainly respect an obligation towards tradition, Mr. Zeto...especially considering my occupation as Sailor Pluto."

He chuckled once before turning to Setsuna's wrist and seeing a very peculiar bracelet. It was a dark black, with a deep crimson jewel embedded in its heart-shaped crest. "The craftsmanship in that morpher is exquisite. Whoever made it clearly put a great deal of care into making it so that it had a sense of market value, but not enough that it would make a stranger think you were someone to keep tabs on...not that you aren't, Dr. Meioh."

"Enough flattery," Setsuna placed her hand her the table cloth and hardened her expression. "How do you know about my duties, and how much do you know? What do you want with me?"

The waiter placed the complimentary bowl of pita bread on their table, along with a garlic-brewed dip, before Mutsuki finally gave his response. "Before I answer that, let me prove to you that I am not here to hurt you...in fact, I think you'll find my offer quite tantalizing." Mutsuki lifted his hand and allowed his sleeve to roll down slightly to reveal a small gold rectangular box with two ram-like horns wrapping in the front, and prepared his fingers for a snap. "Now, when I lift the veil, you must promise me not to react poorly, or we could both be in serious trouble."

"What are you talking-"

"Reveal."

With a snap of his fingers, the peaceful music was suddenly drowned out by the massive outpouring of malicious intent that bombarded Setsuna on all sides. Visually, the room had not changed and its patrons were still going about their business, but Setsuna could now sense the multiple of extremely powerful spirit energies that were located in this room...and one of them came from her host. Thankfully for her, Mutsuki's spirit energy was clean and pure, which meant that he was most likely not an enemy...unfortunately it didn't account for the other malicious energies.

"I've removed the illusion that prevented you from sensing the other people of interest in this room...but only you and I know that we can sense them now. As I'm talking to you, I'm using my abilities of misdirection to make them think that I'm confessing how incredibly beautiful you are. They'll be plenty of time for that afterwards, anyway," Mutsuki turned his head towards the bar where two women sat next to one another looking in their direction. The first woman had short bleached hair, wearing a black leather jacket, and the other woman had black hair going down to her neck, wearing a high-neck sleeveless skirt with a scarf. "I take it you know who those two are?"

"Yes...Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaioh. They used to be very close friends," Setsuna nodded her head before turning away from them, worried that they'll realize they're being watched even with Mutsuki's supposed illusion. "The three of us together are called the 'Outer Senshi:' we protect Earth from threats that the Inner Senshi cannot handle...but we have a secret mission, as well. Because of this secret mission, we had a disagreement and now they work for the enemy. They're probably here to ambush me and take my morpher so that I can't interfere with them."

"Interesting...we have much more in common than I initially suspected," Mutsuki nodded his head before turning to the grand piano at the center of the room, where a medium-built man with wild hair and a goatee played gleefully. "That pianist and I have a very similar history. You see, he and I are supposed to be comrades who work towards preserving our lady Athena, but our organization has become deeply corrupted to a point where I can no longer do my duty and follow orders at the same time. Unfortunately, he sees the corruption as an opportunity to act as savagely as he wants."

The name "Athena" finally triggered a memory that left Setsuna to finally digest the situation she found herself in while Mutsuki snacked on one of the pita bread pieces left at their table. Athena was the Greek goddess of war and wisdom, a justice-loving deity that provided guidance to those who prayed to her. Those who followed Athena's teachings focused on honing their body into the ultimate weapon, making weapons redundant, and called themselves Saints. Even in the era of the Moon Kingdom, the order of Saints existed, and thanks to Setsuna's continuous tuning into the flow of time, she knew that they kept a secret order even as the name of Athena became lost in myth.

"So...you're a Saint, Mutsuki?"

"Please...call me 'Mu,' Dr. Meioh," Mu said with a smile as the pianist stood up and soaked in the light applause from the other patrons. "Mutsuki is just an alias I picked until it was time to serve our Lady Athena...and I hope that with the cooperation of you and the other Senshi, we can work together to serve our mutual goals."

"You just told me that your organization suffers from severe corruption. How do I know you're not leading me along into a trap?" Setsuna asked warily as Mu stood up and helped her to her feet. "It seems very strange that Uranus, Neptune, and your comrade are all here waiting to start an ambush."

"They're not working together: I'm sure if your friends knew what kind of man Deathmask is, they would want to hurt him as much as I do," Mu said with a grin before leading her towards the piano. "They likely followed you here, unaware that Deathmask already intended to use this place to ambush me. I'm going to talk him into conducting a duel elsewhere, please stay close to me so that you don't get ambushed and everything goes south from there."

Reaching into his pocket, Mu pulled out some coins and placed them in the pianist's tip jar. Setsuna wasn't kidding about this "Deathmask" being repulsive. Even if he was dressed in a nice suit, he clearly reeked of the scent of blood and death. If this was at one time Mu's comrade, Setsuna could only imagine what Mu might have done when he and Deathmask were on the same side. "See how much love you can get if you used your hands for something other than murder, Deathmask?" Mu said with a soft smile.

"'Musicmask' doesn't have the same ring to it," Deathmask deadpanned before turning to Setsuna. With a whistle, he looked her from the legs up and stroked his chin. "Still, I might consider changing it to 'Sexymask' if it meant getting arm candy like this lovely thing. I don't suppose after I kill you, I could have her to myself, could I?"

"Women are sacred, just like our Lady Athena. You would do well to remember that," Mu retorted while subtly tightening his hold around Setsuna's waist, reminding her that a direct confrontation could potentially lead to civilian casualties. "Besides, if you wish to kill me, I will not hold any objections to a duel...but let me finish my business with the lady. As Gold Saints, we need to be careful in revealing the presence of Sanctuary to the common populace. I imagine the Pope wouldn't take kindly to it becoming a tourist trap."

As the two Saints discussed "business," Setsuna turned her head back to Haruka and Michiru and was troubled to see that they had left their seats and were now walking towards her. Unlike Mu, Haruka and Michiru had zero qualms in starting matters of business with complete disregard for those who might get caught in the crossfire. Whether her host wanted it or not, very soon there was going to be a confrontation, and Setsuna wasn't about to let someone else be the one to draw first blood.

"Come on, Mu, you know I wouldn't really kill you before I got the information I want out of you," Deathmask said with a cruel smirk. "Just tell me where you've been hiding Saori Kido the past few weeks, and THEN we can play outside!"

Setsuna's eyes lit up as she eavesdropped on the conversation. Saori Kido was the teenager on the metro car with the immense spirit energy! This Deathmask must have not only been an enemy of peace, but an enemy to women, stalking girls and then taking their lives. And this, in Setsuna's eyes, could not be forgiven. Turning back around, Setsuna pulled away from Mu and grabbed Deathmask by his collar before pushing him against the grand piano, much to the surprise of the other patrons.

"When I let you go, you're going to quietly step outside and head to the alley a block north," Setsuna hissed, staring into Deathmask's fiery windows of Hell he dared to call his eyes. "You want bloodshed? I'll be more than happy to give it to you…"

But Deathmask's expression of shock soon turned to one of intrigue. "Ooooh...I didn't sense it before because of Mu's trickery, but now that I get to feel your touch, I can see why he's got the hots for you. That's quite a cosmo you've got, lady…"

On the note of cosmo, Mu felt the powerful cosmos of Haruka and Michiru rapidly approaching, prompting him to turn around and face them. "I'm afraid this is a private engagement," Mu stated calmly as he realized that their murderous intents were beating down upon him. "When the lady is finished with her business, I'll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, I suggest you try the Bacchus on the wine menu. When I was stationed in-"

"Step aside if you don't want your arm broken," the one called Haruka growled as she clenched her fist. "You have until the count of 3. One…"

"It would be a shame if I…"

"Two…"

"...CUT IT FROM YOUR CHEST!"

Finally, Deathmask showed his true colors and focused his pink cosmo into a pincer of energy that jutted out of his wrist and came dangerously close to impaling Setsuna. Setsuna quickly backed off, but evading Deathmask's thrust and causing him to stumble towards their former comrades. Mu quickly stepped to the side, and allowed Deathmask to fall into the chest of Michiru. Whether it was an accident or not was up for debate, but Deathmask tightly grabbed onto Michiru's chest in an effort to keep his balance, but he soon learned that he would have been better off falling on his face.

Michiru quickly put all of her spirit energy into her palm and slapped Deathmask across the face as hard as she could. If Deathmask had been an ordinary man, his entire cheek would have imploded upon himself and he'd spend the next few weeks in a coma. But Deathmask, no ordinary man, only stumbled backwards before looking to the Senshi only a small red mark where he had been hit. "Heh...sorry about that. How about I buy you a drink and we'll just move with your lives?"

"First you try and take our prey, and now you cop a feel?" Michiru hissed as she and Haruka stood in an aggressive stance. "You must have a death wish…"

"Not 'DeathWISH,' it's 'DeathMASK,'" the corrupt Saint retorted as he lifted his hands and parried the simultaneous punch from Haruka and kick from Michiru. With the momentum of both attacks fading through his hands, Deathmask crouched and delivered twin punches to his two assailants, forcing them to back off while he assumed his own stance. "You two have quite the cosmo on you, as well. Pleased to make your acquaintance, girls!"

"Believe me, the pleasure isn't ours, creep," Haruka snapped back as Michiru looked around to see that the patrons were now running for cover in the wake of Deathmask's previous display of his powers. "Still, thanks for scaring off the commoners. Now we don't have to worry about the press showing up at our doorsteps when we don't want them to."

"That was the idea, baby," Deathmask replied with a wink before pulling up the sleeve of his tuxedo to reveal a crab-shaped gold device, which was now glowing with his dark pink cosmo. "Now when the press talks about you, it'll be in your obituary!"

While Haruka and Michiru didn't have the constant awareness of the past, present, and future that Setsuna possessed, they had enough experience in their particular field to know that the device Deathmask possessed was probably something similar in nature to their morphing bracelets. As such, they brandished theirs and the three found themselves in a stand-off that would be broken as soon as they summoned the power bestowed upon them.

It would be a fourth entrant that would break the stand-off and attempt to diffuse the situation, appearing in a flash of white electricity between the combatants and turning towards the two women. While Haruka, Michiru, and Deathmask had yet to assume a form that would be out of the ordinary, the newcomer seemed incapable of blending into the general polulace. He was clad in white body armor, being worn over an orange bodysuit that covered the rest of his body. Masking his face was a white helmet, with a black visor that hide a pair of glowing red eyes. "How about before you two give our cause even more difficulties than it already has," the stranger stated with a metallic tinge in his voice thanks to his mask, "we turn it down a notch and consider that your quarry got away while you two were bickering."

"We're well aware of that, Gesen," Michiru responded bitterly before pointing at Deathmask, "but you can blame this idiot for that. We could have quietly removed Sailor Pluto to a place where no one would bother us, but he had to make too much noise and ruin the ambush."

"Hey, for your information, baby, I LIKE making too much noise when I'm about to kill someone," Deathmask shouted back as Gesen turned to him. "So, buddy, are you going to play with me, too? Three-on-one is a little bit unfair, but I bet we could completely rock this city to its core if we got into a battle royale with all of that cosmo shooting around!"

But rather than enter his own fighting stance, Gesen instead fell onto one knee and bowed his head, as if to show servitude to the stranger. But the confusion was only on Deathmask's side, as Haruka and Michiru folded their arms and waited for the crimson core in Gesen's chest to flash white before his own eyes turned white and his voice changed into one that didn't belong to him. "Please, forgive my subordinates' zeal, sir. We have been dealing with very stressful times and have been planning this sting on Sailor Pluto for a few days. We were not aware that your organization also had designs here."

"Hmmm...using your goon to telepathically project yourself? I'd be more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you showed yourself in person," Deathmask finally lowered his sleeve to hide his device and folded his arms. "Still, it's not my call to decide if you're next in line to be a victim. There's a lot of unfamiliar strong cosmos here tonight, so maybe we can talk this over, y'know?"

"Quite right. Gesen is my trusted associate, and Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are my allies. It is my sincerest hope that we can include your group into our loving circle," the voice stated before Gesen lifted his head and stared at Deathmask. "So, if you would be so kind...take us to your leader."


	2. Act II

"But Minako, what will the rest of the band think when they hear that I'm having an affair with you? My drummer-"

"Your drummer will just have to beat it. I've got it BAD for you, Shun. In fact, I want to do it, right here, on the stage."

Such was the internal dialogue of one bored Usagi Chiba, who had her napping infant daughter in her arms while she watched her token "famons friend" Minako Aino have a heart-to-heart discussion with the guitarist of the backup band for her upcoming concert. In reality, she only learned the guitarist's name was Shun when Minako introduced Usagi to the band a couple of hours earlier and exchanged a brief hello, but Usagi's headcanon went wild and created her own alternate reality that was likely in no way related to this plane of existence.

With her husband not around, Usagi would often find herself lost in these fantasies without her beloved Mamoru keeping her occupied (or more accurately, keeping her in line so that she didn't embarass them in public). It was a case where Usagi clearly needed an adult to remind her of her own adulthood, but without his stoic maturity anchoring her natural bubbliness, she soon found herself once again off in her personal mental soap operas. Once she was in that zone, she would pair anyone with anyone, whether it be cartoon characters or random people she'd see on the news together.

In Usagi's mind, Minako and Shun were having a hot, torrid relationship that they kept hidden from the rest of their colleagues in fear of the press blowing it out of proportion. Behind closed doors, however, things happened of such lewd nature that it would jeopardize their respective careers should it be made public. Because of this, they had been repressing their desire to make out as they went through the rehearsal singing the songs that Minako would have on when they were alone, but Minako's resistance was rapidly waning after listening to the masterful way Shun strummed his guitar when it came time for his majestic solos.

The tension had finally come to a head and Minako had now reverted to a more bestial woman, unable to hold in her desires any longer and was now demanding her lover to take her right there on the stage, in front of everyone watching. If the press would make a big to-do about it, so be it, but perhaps it was always meant to be this way. Perhaps their love was not something to be shunned, but celebrated. If true love was what brought them together, then what shame was there in-

"Usagi!"

"GAH," Usagi jumped up as a voice called out to her and broke her out of her daydream. Her fantasies faded back into reality and she found herself disappointed when Minako and Shun weren't rolling on the stage in a bundle of passion, but calmly exchanging pleasantries before heading over to their respective supporters for a drink of water. In the years that had passed since Usagi first met Minako during their first adventures working together as Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus, Minako had blossomed into a woman and started wearing more risque outfits to accommodate her changing demographic, perfect for shipping with the guitar with green streaks in his dark hair wearing a pink-and-black leather jacket with the "Nirvana" patch in the back, zipped open just enough to reveal his toned torso sweating from carrying his heavy electric guitar.

No, in reality their relationship was completely professional and would likely stay that way when it came time for them to go their separate ways for other gigs, and in reality, someone was calling Usagi's name. Realizing where the voice was coming from, Usagi looked down to where her daughter Chibiusa was sleeping, and saw the black toy cat resting in her arms looking up at her with the same derpy expression it usually had no matter how serious it was trying to be. Hard to believe the spirit within the cat toy was actually a woman several hundred years old and at one point was Usagi's chief advisor in a previous life.

"Usagi," Luna repeated quietly, realizing that if she spoke up too loud, the young man who was sitting a few seats in front of them might overhear their conversation and start asking questions. "We have to get going."

Years ago, Usagi would try to debate walking away from a rare Minako Aino rehearsal regardless of what the situation called for. But back then, Usagi was still a junior high school student too worried about grades and boys to understand the massive responsibilities put upon her. Today, she was a mother and a wife. She was an adult who had a very clear grasp of what was at stake when Luna would shed her facade as a stuffed animal.

As such, her expression hardened as she nodded her head once and subtly leaned over so that Luna would "accidentally fall to the ground. This gave the stuffed toy the opportunity to quickly undergo a very startling transformation underneath the cover of the pavilion seats. Just as Luna had taken the form of a toy cat to hide her true purposes, she could also shed her disguise to assume a form far more human. After a couple of minutes of making sure that no one would pay much attention to Usagi "fumbling" for the toy cat, Luna rose back up to reveal herself as a girl in her early teens, wearing a non-descript skirt with handbag.

Luna took a seat next to Usagi and carefully took the sleeping Chibiusa from Usagi's lap. "I'll tell Minako where you are if she looks for you. Do you need me to tell you where you need to go, or do you think you've got it?"

"I...I think I know where it's coming from," Usagi said after a pause, slightly pre-occupied focusing her recently heightened abilities to sense the spirit energy of nearby entities that the enemy had dubbed "Neo-Youma." After the decisive defeat of the Dark Kingdom, Minako and Luna found it prudent to erase the memories of their fellow Senshi's adventures, determining that it would only get in the way of their well-deserved civilian lives. Unfortunately, the rise of a new enemy made it necessary for these memories to be restored and for Usagi to resume her duties as Sailor Moon.

And thus, Usagi put aside her daydreams about shipping one of her best friends with a stranger, and instead focused on finding the Neo-Youma that triggered Luna's senses. "I'll let you know if I need the others for this one, Luna. For now, I don't want to bother the others. Take care of Chibiusa: if you need to change her diapers or mix her baby formula, they're in my tote bag."

And so, Usagi clandestinely walked out of the aisle and exited the pavillion, leaving Luna to care for the sleeping baby. But as Usagi left her view and Luna focused on her surroundings, she realized that the young man she was trying to hide her secret from had left, as well.

-

Step 1: make your presence known.

Step 1 was something that the Neo-Youma had absolutely no difficulty following. In fact, just standing still was often enough to assert his existence to anyone watching him, which they certainly did as he was decisively odd enough to stand out. His skin was a bronze armor, wearing a black metal tunic with a shirt of sharp blades covering his bulky quadriceps. In fact, "bulky" would have been a good all-encompassing term to describe his Herculean frame, complemented nicely by his metal beard and static face, as well as the lion emblem on his chest as well as his gauntlets.

The location he had chosen to make his incredible debut onto the stage of destiny was the shopping district located in the suburbs near Tokyo University, where there would be plenty of scholars to write tales of his exploits in real time thanks to the advent of social media. Already he had plenty of onlookers giving him curious glances as he scanned the area to see if his quarry was nearby. Unable to sense the unique spirit energy signature of his target, the Neo-Youma let out a loud bellow before stomping on the ground and lifting his massive sword into the air.

"People of the mortal plane, hear my decree and tremble in awe," the Neo-Youma thundered before slinging the massive blade over his shoulder and pointing at himself with his free hand's thumb. "I am the mighty Heracleaver, the Gladiator Neo-Youma! I have decided to come down from my seat in Olympus to accept the challenge of the bravest warriors your city has to offer! Sailor Senshi, step forth and test your might against my omnipotent muscles and magnificent blade!"

When Step 1 didn't produce immediate results barring confused muttering, Heracleaver took it upon himself to Step 2.

Step 2: Stake your claim.

Focusing his spirit energy into his blade until it shone with the orange fury of molten steel, Heracleaver brought his sword down onto the ground and created a razor-sharp shockwave of energy that cut through the pavement and just barely missed the crowd that jumped out of the way on reaction. Had anyone been unfortunate enough to be caught in that swath, they would have been cut in two with their remains cauterized instantly.

Curiosity quickly gave way to terror, and the crowd soon dispersed into a mob of panic, scattering with about as much organization as a group of hens that had their coop broken into by a hungry fox. Heracleaver understood why they might be scared, and it was quite likely that some of them would die today, but if they were truly good in life they wouldn't have anything to worry about. Their souls would be sent to the field of Elysium and then they'd realize that Heracleaver was doing them a favor by using them as sacrificial lambs to draw out the Sailor Senshi.

The Senshi, however, would be ineligible for such a merciful end to their destiny. According to the prophet Fiore and his trusted bodyguard Gesen, the Sailor Senshi were actually the proponents of the apocalypse merely posing as heroes. Sometime in the near future, their leader Sailor Moon would shed her mortal frame and reveal herself as Galaxia, the cosmic dreadnought that would lead a brutal conquest of the universe that left nothing but destruction and chaos in her wake. Unable to stand by and watch this happen, Fiore commissioned Heracleaver to end their threat before it became too big to handle.

False prophets had a particular circle in Hell reserved for them thanks to their crimes, and the least Heracleaver could do before sending them there was to invite them into an honorable duel to the death. In order to continue their charade as heroes, no doubt the social media web was now vibrating with news of his presence and they would soon be here like spiders being alerted that their prey had been trapped. Too bad for the Senshi, Heracleaver would be the wasp that destroyed both the web and the spiders they belonged to.

Which brought him to Step 3: proving his dominance. Now he would actively seek out sacrifices to make it absolutely clear that he would not rest until the Sailor Senshi were but stains on his blade and his fists. In their mad panic, the masses had tripped and fallen over each other trying to get away, which meant that Heracleaver could reap their lives and send them to Elysium within having to worry about chasing them off. "You, over there," Heracleaver pointed to a middle-aged man and charged his sword with his energy once more. "You have been chosen! Lay still and meet your destiny!"

"Hold it right there!"

Heracleaver paused, having finally acquired a challenger, but not paying attention to the decisively male voice that issued it. "Ah, so you've finally arrived, Sa...eh?"

Turning around to face his challenger, Heracleaver was disappointed to see that it wasn't any of the Sailor Senshi, but instead a male youth with messy brown hair wearing a red athletic t-shirt and a pair of slightly tattered jeans. Perhaps he wasn't volunteering to be a challenger, but a sacrifice instead. But Heracleaver was feeling generous and made him an offer to extend his mortal life for just a little bit longer. "Begone with you, peon! I seek true challenger, not a brazen upstart!"

"And that's exactly what I'm going to give you, big guy," the youth snapped back before entering a fighting stance. It was here that Heracleaver realized that perhaps the boy wasn't just bluster, as even a simple gesture like that was enough to tell Heracleaver that he was more than he appeared. Indeed, the strength of his spirit energy once he entered that stance was something that Heracleaver could very much feel, the waves of intent beating down on him like a hot wind.

And so, Heracleaver decided he would test his ability with Step 4: Never forget your allies. "GOLEM TROOPERS," Heracleaver belted out before snapping his metal fingers. Mere seconds passed before several more murderous intents made themselves known, causing the ground to twist and distort before the sources of the intents emerged from the bends in space and rise up from the ground. This time, the intents were beating down on the interloper, taking the form of gray humanoid creatures with a peculiar flower growing out of the chest of their clay bodies. The flower's bud had the appearance of a woman with blue hair, and its roots had clearly overtaken every part of its host. Vines were growing out of the creature's hollow eyes and mouth, and thorns were jutting from their elbows, knees, hands and feet.

The humanoid creatures called "Golem" bobbed back and forth, uttering a gutteral babble as they waited for their summoner's command. "Remove this pretender from my sight," Heracleaver pointed at the youth and thus triggered an attack command, causing the Golem troopers to charge madly at him. But even with their startling entrance and clearly inhuman appearance, the youth did not show any fear as they tried to dogpile upon him. In fact, he seemed more than ready for them, as if he had plenty of experience with just this kind of situation.

The first two Golems that reached him had their clay heads bashed together like coconuts, and the third Golem received a spinning sobat kick that send it crashing into two of its ilk. The fourth Golem received a swift elbow to its chin when it tried to attack from the side, while the fifth golem took a sharp punch in the face that stunned it long enough for the youth to latch onto its arm and fling it onto its neck and shoulders with a judo throw, followed by a pair of mounted punches.

The next three Golems used the sacrifice of its comrades to take rapid switches on the young man, using the thorns in its hands as lethal claws. Recognizing how much pain he'd be in if even one of them hit, as well as realizing that he didn't know what would happen if the thorns actually did scratch his skin, the young man crouched down and swept one of the attackers off of its feet, before rising back up with a spinning kick that struck the other two attackers in the side of the head and sending them spiraling to the ground with a crash.

The youth smiled as he admired his handiwork and looked at the pile of bodies he made in the thirty seconds that had passed between the initial assault and the abject failure of it. "Heh...and here I was actually worried that you guys were going to hurt me," the young man said before turning to Heracleaver. "Sorry, big guy, this is something I deal with every other day. Sending your goons after me isn't going to-OUCH!"

Finally, first blood was drawn when one of the Golems suddenly sprung back to life and scratched the youth across the arm, drawing forth a streak of red. Its comrades quickly followed suit, and if not for the youth's agility, he might have been hurt far worse by their second wind. Quickly putting some space between himself and the Golems, the young man resumed his fighting stance and lost his smile. The first drop of blood always changed everything, and it it was a clear reminder that he was engaged in a life-or-death struggle, and he had no one to blame for that but himself.

"HIYAH," Heracleaver heaved his great sword and attempted to cut down the young man from behind, but his shadow alerted the youth of his presence and so he was able to roll away and again put distance between his opponents. "You see now, boy, that you are out of your league. How unfortunate that my offer to spare your life has expired!" With the Golems now fully recovered, Heracleaver signaled for them to once again tear the young man apart…

"MOON TIARA BOOMERANG!"

...but they were literally cut off from the youth as a battle cry ripped through the air along with a golden weapon that severed the flowers jutting out of their chest. The flowers unleashed a cry of despair before falling silent and rapidly withering on the pavement, which left the vines and roots within the Golems to wither as well. And thus, without the vines that penetrated their bodies, the hollowed-out humanoids literally crumbled to the ground in a heap of lifeless clay that eroded just as quickly as the flowers that controlled them.

The weapon struck Heracleaver once to unleash a spray of sparks before veering back and returning into the hands of its owner. "Ruining a perfect sunny day by attacking innocent bystanders, and then claiming that you're a warrior of honor...this is unforgivable," the latest challenger said as she walked in front of the young man and struck a pose in her slightly flashy fuku and boots. "The guardian of love and justice, I'm the pretty Sailor Senshi, Sailor Moon!" With a flash of her immense spirit energy, she struck one more pose before pointing an accusing finger at Heracleaver. "And in the name of the moon...I will punish you!"

"Um...excuse me."

The youth's voice nervously followed Sailor Moon's dynamic speech and corresponding pose, breaking her out of "the mood" and returning her to her usual jovial self. Turning around to face the young man, Sailor Moon gave him a polite smile as he continued. "You...were you at the pavilion a few minutes ago?"

Her smile turned into a nervous one as she gave the youth the once-over and realized it was the same young man that was sitting around her while she was watching Minako's rehearsal. Before she could answer with an excuse, the youth continued as his eyes lit up. "Yeah...no doubt about it! I thought I sensed a really powerful cosmo nearby, but I figured it was another one of Sanctuary's goons spying on us. Turns it out it was the lady a few seats away from me!"

The youth stepped next to the bewildered superheroine before bowing his head politely and introducing himself. "My name is Seiya. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance!"

"Uhhh...likewise, Seiya," Sailor Moon bowed her head nervously before mustering up the courage to regain her senses and again standing in front of Seiya. "You better find someplace safe, Seiya. I'll handle this guy!"

"On the contrary, Sailor Moon," Heracleaver chipped in point lifting his blade and pointing it at Seiya. "I believe it would be unsporting if we did not allow him to finish what he started...even if what he started was a complete suicide mission!"

"My thoughts exactly, big guy," Seiya said before lifting his hand and bringing attention to the peculiar bracelet around his wrist: a metallic horse head with a pair of deep red eyes embedded in it. Now that she got a good look at it, Sailor Moon could sense some kind of power coming from the bracelet...and that's when it hit her. The power wasn't coming from the bracelet, but into it: Seiya's body was now radiating a bright red aura of spirit energy that she could easily sense thanks to her own heightened awareness. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she would say that what Seiya was doing was the exact same thing she and the other Senshi would do before they…

"CLOTH CHANGER!"

Striking a dynamic pose as his spirit energy reached its peak, Seiya's bracelet reached critical mass as it projected an image that soon materialized into solid form: a metallic winged horse statue of shimmering silver with highlights of red accenting its eyes, hooves, and wings. Seconds later, the statue burst into dozens of pieces that rushed towards Seiya like he were a magnet, sheathing his body to form body armor while the head of the horse became a crown that he wore upon his head.

"Racing through the heavens," Seiya's spirit energy spiked once more before he assumed another pose and re-introduced himself, "Pegasus Saint...Seiya!"

"Pegasus…"

"...Saint?" Sailor Moon and Heracleaver said with puzzled befuddlement as Seiya charged the Neo-Youma with his fist raised. Sailor Moon watched with amazement as the stranger threw a powerful punch that sent the muscular Heracleaver stumbled backwards, and then kicking him in the head with such force that he fell down to one knee. With his opponent dazed, Seiya delivered a snapping kick to the Neo-Youma's chin that forced him onto the ground while Seiya prepared to continue the assault to his prone adversary.

Heracleaver recovered before he could do so, brandishing his scimitar and sweeping it across the ground so that he could clear some room. To his surprise, Seiya not only evaded the swipe, but landed on the tip of the blade so that he could run across it and unleash another cosmo-infused punch that sent Heracleaver...into a rage to a point where he dropped his sword and placed Seiya into a crushing bearhug. "Too bad, child! Now I'll be forced ruin that wonderful armor by turning you into a pink paste!"

"Not...likely...HYAH!"

By focusing his cosmo and letting it reach supernova, Seiya was able to greatly amplify his strength to a point where he could forcibly break even the Neo-Youma's superhuman grip. Such feats were made possible only through the most vigorous of training in addition to the gifts granted to him by his Pegasus Cloth. Still, Seiya realized that he might have underestimated how much trouble he'd have with Heracleaver, and thus didn't object when Sailor Moon charged in with her trademark weapon, the Moon Spiral Heart Rod.

Without his own weapon, Heracleaver could only parry the weapon with his hands and attempt to snatch it from Sailor Moon's hands. Too bad for him, the weapon's very touch was like fire, and every strike from the weapon searing his metallic body. In the wake of the new enemy that was assembled strictly for taking her life, Sailor Moon's own power and abilities had grown considerably since the war with the Dark Kingdom. Whereas before she was held back by her own fear of getting hurt, Sailor Moon now fought with conviction and and the belief that she would have to become stronger for the sake of her friends and the innocents that were getting caught in the crossfire of the enemy's unrelenting quest for her blood.

As clearly shown by Heracleaver's disregard for human life even prior to her arrival, the enemy would not shy from slaughtering the common people if it meant drawing her out, but Sailor Moon wasn't about to let them get what they wanted, nor was she going to allow them to do as they pleased trying to accomplish their goals. With a final strike, Sailor Moon sent Heracleaver sprawling backwards, landing flat on his rear end.

"Grrr...you're everything the adviser Fiore said you'd be, Sailor Moon," Heracleaver grumbled as he picked up his sword next to him as Pegasus Seiya and Sailor Moon gathered together for whatever came next. "I see that I will need to hold nothing back if I wish to succeed on my noble quest to put an end to your future tyranny!"

Charging forward while swinging his scimitar menacingly, Heracleaver lunged with speed that belied his great size and attempted to cut both of his enemies in one swoop. Sailor Moon took to the sky to avoid the slash, while Seiya crouched down and narrowly missed getting bisected, before rising back up and delivering a powerful uppercut to Heracleaver's iron beard. With his head now forced upward, Heracleaver looked up just in time to have his nose smashed by the end of Sailor Moon's boot as she delivered a flying kick.

Stunned by the dual assault, Heracleaver focused his energy into his blade and again attempted to cut the duo down, this time by using his killing intent to extend the reach of his blade. Unfortunately for him, he had already shown this technique to Seiya when he initiated Step 2, and so Seiya was able to grab onto Sailor Moon and whisk her away to a safe distance before turning around and unleashed a ranged attack of his own.

"PEGASUS RYUUSEI KEN!"

By rapidly punching the air, Seiya was able to create gusts of wind with so much force that they were able to bombard Heracleaver with greater force and velocity than a machine gun, causing the Neo-Youma to roar out in pain before taking another great swipe with his scimitar and putting an end to the assault by sending Seiya and Usagi on the evasive defense. But it was clear as day that the power within Pegasus Seiya's fists were no less potent than the blows of Sailor Moon: there were clear dents in Heracleaver's body showing that the technique was effective.

"He's on the ropes," Seiya said with determination as he charged his cosmo for the coup de grace.

"Wait," Sailor Moon placed a hand on Seiya's shoulder, breaking his focus so that she could inform him of something that should have been brought to his attention earlier. "Despite what he's doing, this Neo-Youma is actually a human being possessed by the enemy. He doesn't know any better right now."

"Alright...can it be reversed?"

"Yeah," Sailor Moon nodded her head as she charged her own energy. "Just buy me a few seconds to get everything ready."

Heracleaver, now in a maddened state, once more charged with his weapon ready to bisect his enemies. As Sailor Moon glowed with holy light, Pegasus Seiya stood at her defense and caught Heracleaver's blade with both his hands, struggling mightily as all of Heracleaver's immense physical strength was paired against his own. Again, he realized that he underestimated Heracleaver's ability to smash things: he wasn't sure if he could have held the blade off for very long.

Thankfully, he wouldn't have to worry about that, as soon Sailor Moon unleashed her pink energy with a pirouette and a thrust of her wand, unleashing her purifying energy in the form of a rapidly rotating heart of power. "MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK!"

The blast struck true as Seiya jumped out of the way and allowed Heracleaver to be cleansed of the impurities Fiore placed upon him. The sword was the first to disappear, disintegrating instantly and providing zero protection having already been strained to its limit from Seiya's cosmo pressing against it. As for Heracleaver himself, his metal hide was literally peeled away as the blast vaporized it to reveal a well-built human wearing a black t-shirt and matching Zubaz pants.

"Hmmm...needs a fanny pack to go with the Zubaz pants," Sailor Moon said thoughtfully as she assessed the fashion statement made by the purified human who was on the ground on his hands and knees panting heavily. "If you're going to wear something that garish, you might as well go for the entire ensemble."

"Fanny packs...what are you, from the Showa era?" Seiya quipped as the man stood up and looked around in confusion before stumbling away dripping sweat, clearly having no idea what he had just went through. "So your enemy takes ordinary humans and turns them into monsters? It must be rough knowing that something that strong is someone you have to hold back against because you don't to accidentally kill an innocent person."

"Yeah...and I was lucky to have you helping me out. It probably would have been tough taking him on by myself," Usagi said as the two of them quickly made themselves scarce so that they could retreat to one of the corner alleys nearby. Once they were sure that no one had followed them, they relieved themselves of their alter-egos and reverted back to more civilian attire. "Anyway...my name is Usagi Chiba. It's good to meet you, Seiya!"

"Yeah, you too," Seiya graciously shook Usagi's hand before looking at his watch. "Anyway, I've gotta get going. I'm Shun's ride to where we're meeting the rest of our friends for dinner, and after that we're going to spend the night seeing if we can fulfill our mission."

"Hey, that sounds great," Usagi chipped in as she followed Seiya down into the underbelly of the city where they would catch a subway back to the pavilion. "I'll go with you: you seem like someone who'd be fun to trade stories with!"

-

High above the two heroes, a lone figure wearing his usual white-and-black cloak stood in silence as he watched them disappear from sight. While Heracleaver was a fine Neo-Youma, as were all Neo-Youma that were summoned by his hand, the figure didn't expect him to be able to handle all five Senshi should they gather. In truth, Heracleaver's attack was a smokescreen for the figure's true intention. Two nights prior, his operatives encountered a complication in their plans, and now he wished to confirm his suspicions.

The timeline was once again shifting. The Saints, originally absent from this point in history at this point of Sailor Moon's life before her corruption, had entered the playing field.

"Master Fiore…"

"...Gesen, my friend," the figure did not turn around but spoke with utmost respect to his trusted associate as the armored warrior stepped next to him and looked down at the city. "It would see that your suspicions are correct. If Sanctuary was snooping about, then their enemies were sure to follow."

"There isn't much in your database about the Saints...but I remember hearing tales about them growing up on Earth," Gesen said solemnly before handing Fiore a piece of paper. "Deathmask has spoken with his leader, the Pope of Sanctuary. They want to arrange a meeting with us to discuss our goals and if they can be of assistance, but they expect us to do it in their headquarters in Greece. They must intend to ambush us for discovering their existence."

"No...they want to see if we can be of any value to them, and if we don't prove our worth, they'll try and dispose of us," Fiore grumbled before taking the piece of paper. "But humans are inherently a misguided, if not well-meaning species. If these are the coordinates of their hideout, they probably expect us to be unable to reach it without their hexes. But…"

The wind picked up slightly, blowing off the hood of Fiore's cloak to reveal his natural turquoise hair that flowed in the wind that revealed it. He often kept it hidden when out "in the field" due to how it might surprise the human populace, but here in the rooftops with his close friend, he could enjoy a bit of respite and bask in the fact that he was not from this blue planet. He was but a visitor, and one of the planet's hosts was inviting him to a party.

"...it would be rude of me not to accept such a gracious invitation. Tell Deathmask to give this message to the Pope...I prefer my tea cold."

"Yes, Master," Gesen bowed his head.


	3. Act III

In Brazil, a well-known footballer met his early end when a speeding car attempting to evade police struck him while crossing the street, transforming his athletic physique into a messy smear on steel and pavement.

In the United States, a member of the Senate was found guilty of perjury when asked to testify against one of the most nefarious crime lords in the country, only for his testimony to be rendered void when the other key witnesses went missing or silent at the most crucial moments.

In France, a child was forcibly abducted from his home, initiating a frantic manhunt for his kidnapper. Thus far, the manhunt has borne no fruit, and authorities are fearful that the child has left the country along with his abductor.

There were thousands of countries, cities, towns, villages, and counties on the planet Earth, and it was the duty of the Pope to keep tabs on every single one of them. Since before the dawn of Christianity, the followers of Athena's teachings within the peacekeeping organization known simply as "Sanctuary" spread their limbs across the world Athena entrusted to them, adapting and shifting with the tides of change and so-called "progress." No matter what type of ideology the world adapted, the mission of Sanctuary, like the goddess Athena herself, was eternal. It was merely the vessel in which their mission was conducted that changed.

As the gods of Greek Pantheon eroded into memory, like all things created in the universe, their souls lived on through human hosts blessed and cursed with their powers, memories and abilities. And in order to continue serving the Goddess of Righteous War and Wisdom, Sanctuary established the position of "Pope" to gather the forces of justice when it came time for Athena to return to the mortal plane and resume her duties as the guardian of humanity. The current Pope looked to the many "screens" of prophetic cosmo and allowed himself to be distracted from his current task to remind himself of the direction humanity had taken.

In North Korea, a mad dictator slaughtered a peasant family in cold blood because they had received the perverse privilege to entertain him with their begging, pleading, and final screams before they were sent to the underworld.

In Iraq, centuries of culture was strained by the stumbling "liberation" of their people by powers who wished to re-ignite vendettas because they were unable to fulfill it in another front.

In South Africa, racial tensions erupted once more and men that should have been brothers in a utopic beach were now making the tides run red with the blood of apartheid and bigotry.

In Finland, the teachings of a madman found a home in Parliament, using their education system lauded in the world over as a vehicle for hatred.

Each Pope was a veteran of the previous "Holy War," the age-old battle of Athena's forces of humanity against Hades' legions of the undead seeking to eradicate all life on Earth. In fact, Sanctuary itself was intended to be a training ground for Athena's Saints formed with the sole purpose of winning each Holy War and then keeping a reserve guard available for the next round of battle a couple of centuries later. The fairness of humanity having to protect itself every two centuries or so against a force that they had already beaten but growing stronger still was often put into question, but it was a consequence of Athena being such a holy figure. Even in the way of clear villany, Athena found forgiveness, but the forces of evil would time and time again take this forgiveness as weakness.

The current Pope took it upon himself to break this cycle of futility. Sanctuary had assumed a position of passiveness for centuries, only shifting with the times when it was necessary to improve its global network in finding recruits for their upcoming Holy War. The soldiers of Sanctuary were stronger and more righteous than any army formed under a simple flag, yet they were squandered for a cyclic battle against the forces of the undead, an army that could not be slain for that they were already dead. He knew that in order to truly create a paradise that Sanctuary longed for, one free of worry of it all being snatched away by Hades' never-ending thirst for carnage, he too would need to shift with the tides and take action.

Therefore, he usurped the title from the archaic fool that held the seat at the time, and took his place as Pope. Thanks the age-old tradition that the Pope shed his identity and assume the masks and robes of Popes before him, he had the entire organization believing that nothing had changed except for the more aggressive expansion of Sanctuary's influence. As long as he continued to claim that he worked for Athena's ideals and not his own, the sheep would follow the shepherd blindly.

In Russia, the man once hailed as a savior was revealing his true colors as a despot, and the people cry out for his exile only for him to exert his authority with more oppression.

In Japan, demons and monsters run rampant in a city that prided itself on being in the cutting edge of science, and the police must stand aside so that heroes of supernatural powers fight fire with fire.

And in Greece, the origin of Sanctuary, an economic collapse the likes of which the world has never seen before has transformed the populace into an angry mob, screaming for the throats of those who were responsible for the loss of their material gains.

"Humans try so hard to do good."

The Pope's eyes lit up as an incredibly powerful cosmo, one that rivaled that of the Gold Saints, suddenly entered his awareness along with realizing that the voice making such an indescript statement was not his own. Japan had recently become a place of considerable interest of Sanctuary, as a group of Bronze Saints caught wind of his secret plans to abduct the current vessel of Athena for his own nefarious ends, and had declared themselves enemies of Sanctuary. Currently, he had two of his absolute best agents dealing with them, but a strategy to ambush one of the treacherous Gold Saints that sided with them was foiled by overlapping with an entirely different faction's intent to ambush the Gold Saint's date. Rather than fight amongst themselves, the leader of the separate faction offered to meet with the Pope to discuss the possibility of cooperation.

The Pope agreed, and so arranged his private villa from which he watched over all of Sanctuary for a private dinner for perhaps the first time in Sanctuary's history. Of course, the location of Sanctuary was so secretive and so buried in the mountains of Crete that it was impossible to find unless they were specifically selected by Sanctuary to be privy of its location, and strong enough to pass through the twelve houses guarded by Sanctuary's elite guard, the Gold Saints. Given that he had heard nothing of any intruders from the other Gold Saints, the Pope figured the representative would have realized he was out of his league and speak through an intermediary.

But there he was, cloaked in a white hooded robe that faded into black near his feet, casually walking past the Pope's throne while observing the visions of the world. "But you know just as well as I do that humans are, at their core, a species of sinners. They reach for the stars trying to justify their existence, unsatisfied with simply falling in line for the sake of the planet. If everyone on this planet accepted their role, there wouldn't be so much conflict over petty things like money, race, sex, and religion."

"It's simple for you to say that when you can separate yourself from humanity and view our plight from an objective viewpoint," the Pope stated firmly before revealing his pale hand from beneath the sheath of his own crimson robe and motioning to a seat at a single round table, decorated with candles and plates made from the finest porcelain. "Please, sit down. I will not ask how you managed to reach the House of Athena so quickly, for the only explanation is that you possess a cosmo far beyond any simple human...or Earthling, for that matter."

"Cosmo...you refer to my energy signature," the guest said before pulling down his hood to reveal his long turquoise hair that grew pink at the roots. "But yes, you realize that I am not a human, like you are. I'm not saying that to intimidate you: it's just a simple statement of fact." The guest walked towards the Pope until he was directly in front of him, and then bowed his head while placing his hand on his opposite shoulder, revealing his intricately decorated clothing underneath his cloak. "My name is Fiore, and I come in peace."

"...so you say," the Pope grumbled before the two of them sat at opposite seats of the table. "The Taurus Saint, Aldebaran, prepared a grand feast for you even though I told him that you would likely not be appearing in person. Of course, I didn't expect your extraterrestrial origins to play a factor in your arrival. Please, help yourself."

"That won't be necessary. My species does not require food in the traditional sense: you could say that we are mostly similar to plants as we take sustenance from ways very similar to photosynthesis. My planet is very similar to Earth, with a mighty sun and a great tree that provides us the energy we need to function. Besides," Fiore added as he reached over to the teapot and took a whiff of the contents within, "I'm not sure if any of this is poisoned. I've heard stories about the way Sanctuary conducts business, so pardon my paranoia."

"There was no point poisoning the food because we didn't expect you to arrive, but Aldebaran wanted to prepare a meal anyway," the Pope responded as Fiore poured a cup of tea. "We have iced the tea, just as you requested."

"Ah...many thanks, honorable Pope," Fiore lifted his cup before drinking his tea and continuing. "I do apologize for the misunderstanding our associates had earlier this week. While I come from the stars, Gesen was actually born and raised on Earth. You see, both of us come from a future where Earth and much of the galaxy has been decimated by a despot whose origins come from this blue planet. We traveled to the present day to prevent her awakening by any means necessary."

"Was it the woman with the Aries Saint?"

"You mean Sailor Pluto? No. Believe it or not, in the future we come from, she was the one who opened up the Gate of Time so that we could step through and prevent catastrophe. Unfortunately, she did so without realizing we intended to save the universe by any means necessary, even if it meant civilians becoming collateral damage. Due to this, she has sided with the Sailor Senshi...whose ranks include that same despot but has not yet awoken her dark desires."

"Sailor Moon," the Pope uttered as Fiore nodded his head. "This is why I had my suspicions that you were not a visitor, but an invader. Even with the crisis with the renegade Saints, I have kept tabs on Sailor Moon and her associates. From what I understand, she is a warrior of peace. What does this world have to fear from someone so pure?"

"Beneath that veneer of innocence lies a wrathful goddess, constantly clamoring to be released from her mortal shell. Sometime in the near future, Sailor Moon will be unable to contain such an entity and succumb completely to it. When that happens, the goddess will be consumed by her wrath and bring forth a terrible calamity as the tyrant Queen Galaxia, and thus the galaxy will be subjugated by her destructive rule. My planet was in the process of being overrun when Pluto approached me with the opportunity to step through the Gate of Time. And from what I gather from my intel...the forces of Sanctuary have a similar plight they deal with every two hundred years or so, correct?"

"Yes...yes, that is correct," the Pope nodded his head once before turning to the screens of cosmo displaying the news of the world. "So what you are telling me is that you would like Sanctuary to assist you in your purely altruistic mission to save the universe, by claiming the life of Sailor Moon before she emerges from her chrysalis. If the threat is ignored, then Sanctuary will not need to worry about the advent of Hades because there will be no Earth to protect from him."

"Yes, and do not think I am appealing strictly to your sense of duty to protect your planet," Fiore said with a smirk as he once again sipped his tea. "I know an ambitious man when I see one, but to confirm my thoughts I used my abilities as an empath to take a small peek into your thoughts. It's not nearly refined enough to read you like an open book, but I have a decent enough idea."

The Pope's head suddenly jerked upward, giving Fiore such a chilling glare that the alien could feel his host's rage even though his face was covered entirely by his ebony mask. He could also feel the Pope's massive spirit energy rise sharply. While Fiore remained calm, he altered his approach slightly so that he wouldn't have to test his own might against his, for he wasn't entirely sure it was a fight he'd emerge from unscathed. "You...you wish to put a permanent end to the war between Athena and Hades, by eliminating the dichotomy between them. Athena is good, and Hades is evil...but if they were fused into a single entity, they would both and neither, and thus there would be harmony."

"...Hmph," the Pope eased the tension his body and sat back down. "Good. You're not as brazen as I thought, because you realize what happens to those who discover too much about Sanctuary without having something to offer to us."

"Indeed. For your plan to succeed, you must first bring the current host of Athena to Sanctuary, which is why you have agents in Japan. With my knowledge of the future and your resources, I imagine we can help each other in both of our goals," Fiore stated as he stood up from his own seat and walked up to the Pope, even though he was only seconds away from being attacked earlier. With a friendly gesture, Fiore outstretched his hand and smiled. "All I ask is that you allow me temporary but unquestioned authority of your agents stationed in Japan."

The Pope looked at Fiore's hand before standing upright and letting his long white hair fall down across the back of his robe. "You speak as if what you're asking is of no trifle at all, but the motives of Sanctuary are different from your own. Why is it that you need complete control if your only purpose is to visit. Are you one of those aliens who believe that humans need salvation through subjugation?"

"Of course not. After we eradicate Sailor Moon, what happens on that planet afterwards is of no concern. My planet will be safe, and the galaxy will be rescued. But as a strategist, I prefer an open canvas to work with. Give me one, and I will make sure that both the Bronze Saints and Sailor Senshi will no longer pose a threat, and Saori Kido will be delivered to you completely intact."

"...strictly as a charity?"

"As thanks for offering me such exquisite tea and reminding me that the human race is a highly entertaining species, and should be allowed to have exceptional men like yourself lead them to their fullest potential," Fiore replied as the Pope clasped onto his hand and squeezed tightly, most likely to try and intimidate his guest so that he made it clear that he was the one in control at the moment. "Now then, I take it that Deathmask is not only agent you have in Japan. While quite strong, he seems much too impulsive to have complete control over a clandestine operation like finding Athena while at the same time eliminating the Bronze Saints."

"The Cancer Saint is loyal, but only because he was one of my co-conspirators in taking the throne," the Pope confirmed as they broke the handshake and turned to one of the many screens of cosmo. "He volunteered to come to Japan because it meant satisfying his bloodlust. When it comes to actually executing plans, I have entrusted that responsibility to a very capable Silver Saint. You will find her at this address…"

When she walked into her penthouse in Tokyo owned by Sanctuary, the first thing she saw was Seiya.

When she went into the kitchen and reached into her knife cabinet to prepare dinner, the first thing she saw was Seiya.

When she went into the bathroom, when she went into the living room, when she went into the bedroom, Seiya, Seiya, Seiya.

The bedroom in particular was a cornucopia of visions of the young man who stole everything from her. He stole her honor, her integrity, her pride, her independence, even her heart. Whenever she tried to close her eyes and get some rest after a strenuous mission or rigorous day of training her mind and body to its absolute limit, all she would see was Seiya smiling warmly at her, mocking her with his tenderness and optimism. The words that came out of his mouth when he firmly and completely stole her reputation as a warrior without peer amongst her fellow female Saints.

"You're beautiful, Shaina! You shouldn't hide that gorgeous face behind that mask."

The green-haired Amazon known as Shaina carefully studied the video clips of her arch-nemesis, as she always did when the Pope tasked her with a mission that would likely bring her into direct conflict with Seiya and his allied Bronze Saints. For the past few months in Japan, Shaina had called the city of Tokyo her base of operations as the Pope gave her complete command of Sanctuary's campaign to establish their authority in the region and capture the current host of their Lady Athena. More importantly, she was tasked with the execution of the renegade Saints that declared Sanctuary their enemy and hid Athena from their grasp so that they could pursue their own interests. The Pope even gave Shaina the services of the Gold Saint, Cancer Deathmask, to further prove his trust in her capabilities as a leader.

Since coming to Tokyo, Ophiuchus Shaina had endured many battles with the Bronze Saints, sometimes having worthy duels and other times being thoroughly embarrassed thanks to the incompetence of the Bronze and Silver Saints that were under her command. Time and time again, they would declare that they would be the ones who would send them to Judecca, and every time they would come back empty-handed, if they bothered coming back at all. All five of the Bronze Saints that defied Sanctuary, as well as the rebel Gold Saint Aries Mu, were warriors of the absolute highest tier, capable of fighting on par with the best Sanctuary had to offer.

But Shaina made a vow, one that she made sure to share with her subordinates, that Seiya's life belonged to her. Whatever happened to the other rebels was a responsibility she gave to her agents as a gift, but only she could be the one who claimed his heart. Only she could be the one to rip his gentle heart from his chest and hold it over her head before crushing it and absorbing the honor Seiya stole from her. It was this vow upon which she swore to follow the Pope's orders without question, no matter how mysterious or devious they seemed on the surface.

Therefore, she found the idea of a different faction taking Seiya's life completely unacceptable. And in addition to this unknown faction interfering with Sanctuary's business, there was now another woman in Seiya's life, which was equally unacceptable. What did this woman have that Seiya desired more than what Shaina had to offer him. True, her outfits were considerably less intimidating than Shaina's violet leotard and Ophiuchus Cloth, and she had a sense of gentleness about her that was more in tune with Seiya's own kind heart versus Shaina's vow to rip him to pieces...but was she more beautiful? Was this the kind of woman that stirred Seiya's heart?

"Sailor Moon…"

So the rumors were true. Something that Shaina had long considered an urban legend was indeed reality. There were a few books in Sanctuary's archive that detailed activity of the organization during the so-called "Moon Kingdom" Era, but one of the more difficult parts of Sanctuary's history was that it was difficult to separate fact from fiction. Sailor Moon was supposedly the reincarnation of the Moon Kingdom's Princess Serenity, commanding the power of a god but assuming the form of a ditzy magical girl. Now that ditzy magical girl had matured into a ditzy magical woman, and she saw it fit to try and take Shaina's prey.

"Mistress…"

Shaina's eyes suddenly widened with murderous scorn as she quickly scrambled to put on her silver mask and turned to the door of her dark bedroom, where the light peeked in to reveal one of her subordinates nervously trembling. "YOU FOOL," she screeched as she lunged at the fool with the speed of a cobra, wrapping her hand around his neck and forcefully shoving him into the living room. Baring the sharp nails of her free hand, Shaina focused her violent cosmo into it until it crackled with lethal voltage. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU ALMOST DID!?"

"I...I was going to tell you a guest was here?"

"You...almost...saw...my...face," Shaina hissed before tossing him into a wooden table with such force that it splintered upon impact, leaving both it and the servant in a heap. The law of female Saints was very clear, and it was this law that fueled Shaina's vendetta with Seiya. As the only man to have seen her face, Shaina was left with two choices to deal with Seiya if she wished to continue to enjoy Sanctuary's protection: become his bride, or become his executioner. Now that Seiya had proven himself a traitor, only his death would bring Shaina back her honor as a Saint.

No matter how much her heart yearned for Seiya to cry out her name in bliss while sharing a bed, her duty commanded that she must have him cry out her name in terror while sharing a battlefield. And it was for this same reason that she did not tear apart the guest in her living room sitting calmly on the couch, covered from head to toe in a dark orange bodysuit with white body armor, with crimson eyes that glowed from beyond his visor, just as the crystal core in his chest glowed. With such a unique and strong cosmo, Shaina had a good idea who it was.

"I take it you're the representative of the faction that Deathmask encountered at the restaurant?"

"...yes. I am Gesen," the figure nodded his head once. "Let's be friends, Ophiuchus Shaina."


	4. Act IV

"I'm here!"

Makoto Furuhata called out to her husband as she entered the Crown Entertainment Arcade & Karaoke Bar, where business was as lively as ever thanks to the end of the work day signaling the arrival of the working class looking to unwind after a long day. As she walked through, she caught a glimpse of the stairwell that went into the bottom floor's karaoke parlor, and struggled not to be hit with the wave of nostalgia that came with it. Before moving to this particular part of Tokyo while in junior high school, she didn't really have much interest in karaoke or video games, but it was a hobby she acquired that changed her life drastically.

"Oh, Mako-chan," Motoki turned away from one of the arcade cabinets and walked over to his wife, who still had a little bit of shine on her smooth skin thanks to particularly strenuous workout at the martial arts gym a few blocks north of the venue. When Makoto first came to this part of Tokyo, she had been recently dumped by a boyfriend she referred to only as "sempai," unable to bring herself to say his name in the wake of her broken heart. In a vain attempt to cope with the loss, she intensified her training in karate to a point where her peers saw her as unladylike, further adding to her isolation and depression. Now that she was an adult, she had made martial arts her chosen profession, and with her resolve came close friendships and a loving husband.

Given Motoki a kiss on the cheek as he greeted her, Makoto exchanged pleasantries before asking Motoki how his day was. "My day was fine. I met with the Namco community representative this morning about the upcoming Super Battle Opera qualifier. He's approved this location for qualifying for the Namco World Cup, and will speak to his contacts at Capcom about having them do business here, as well," Motoki said with pride before turning to the cabinets where a very familiar face was sitting at the Soul Calibur cabinet having a set against a challenger. "By the way, Ami-chan says she's expecting you, so she came here after she finished her shift at the hospital. Another girl's night out?"

Makoto shook her head before walking over to Ami. "Only for the evening. I should be home before you close the arcade."

When Makoto first met Ami Mizuno in junior high school, she found her too aloof and shy to approach as readily as she would other girls their age. While Makoto chose to isolate herself in the wake of her depression, Ami was naturally awkward around others as she focused entirely on her studies. Unlike the orphaned Makoto who lived alone as she entered her teenage years, Ami lived under the constant scrutiny of her mother's wishes, coming from a wealthy family with a mother who earned great respect as a remarkable surgeon. If not for their mutual friend Usagi, it was unlikely Ami and Makoto would have had anything to do with one another.

But fate didn't work out with way. In fact, in their previous lives in the Moon Kingdom, Ami and Makoto were the mystifying Sailor Mercury and thunderous Sailor Jupiter, loyal bodyguards and generals of the Moon Princess Serenity. Sailor Mercury had achieved complete mastery over water while Sailor Jupiter was the mistress of electricity, and together they were close to unstoppable next to their fellow Sailor Senshi. Reawakened in the present day as Ami Mizuno and Makoto Kino (now Furuhata thanks to her marriage with Motoki), Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter continued their mission of protecting Princess Serenity from the forces of darkness. Of course, when Usagi awakened her memories as the Princess and unleashed the full potential of her power as Sailor Moon, such protection proved unnecessary.

Currently, the five Sailor Senshi had resumed their duties as superheroines, banded together against a new enemy that sought to claim the life of Usagi. Before the new enemy emerged, Sailor Venus saw it prudent to once again put the other Senshi's memories in a state of dormancy so that they could enjoy their peaceful civilian lives uninterrupted. Makoto found work as a professional fighter and was building a strong reputation for herself hoping to one day main event the larger venues like Tokyo Dome, while Ami had moved back to Japan to work as a surgeon at a large hospital in Tokyo.

But not only were Ami's hands masterful in the operating room, they were masterful on the arcade sticks, as well. What started as a hobby to help unwind from the rigors of the hospital had turned into a new chance at prestige for Ami Mizuno, and she found herself one of the primary competitors for the reputable "Super Battle Opera" arcade tournament series. Motoki took great pride in his venue being selected for one of the locations of the qualifiers, and proudly sponsored Ami's success by giving her unlimited access to the cabinets, just as Ami would have unlimited access to the karaoke parlor downstairs.

Obviously, Motoki was unaware that the Sailor Senshi were using the karaoke parlor as their base of operations when they had the time to discuss their mission, but he still saw Makoto's friends as his friends as well. After all, if not for Usagi and the others, Makoto would have never come into his life and he wouldn't have met the lovely lady who would become his wife. With his memories of Makoto's secret identity erased at the death knell of the Dark Kingdom, he was blissfully ignorant of the dangers Makoto put herself through outside of the ring.

Makoto walked over to where Ami was tapping away on the buttons of the machine, and leaned in to speak quietly in her ear. "So how free is this guy?"

"He's trying his best. That's all I can ask for," Ami replied politely before finishing off her opponent for a clean 3-0 sweep. Standing from her seat, Ami shook the hand of her challenger as he bowed humbly before walking off to another game. Once he walked off, Ami turned to Makoto and smiled. "Good to see you, Mako-chan! How was your day today? Is Shinozaki doing okay?"

"So far he hasn't asked me any weird questions, so I think we're in the clear," Makoto said with a smile. Shinozaki was Makoto's main sparring partner at the mixed martial arts gym, who currently worked a professional wrestler for one of the larger federations in Japan. When the new enemy first made themselves known to Makoto, they transformed Shinozaki into a Neo-Youma hoping to take advantage of the fact that Makoto had not yet re-awoken her memories as Sailor Jupiter, as well as exploit the long history Shinozaki and Makoto had dating back to their childhood. But Sailor Jupiter returned that day, and purified Shinzokai so that he could resume his life without any ill side effects. One of the best things about the new abilities the Sailor Senshi had gained in this new war was that by purifying the Neo-Youma, the hosts would have no memory of what transpired during their corruption which made it easy to keep their secret identities safe.

"How about you and Ryo?" Makoto responded.

"Attacking through people close to the Sailor Senshi" thus far had been the primary strategy of Fiore and Gesen when it came to selecting hosts for their Neo-Youma. Ryo Urawa was another top fighting game player who greatly admired Ami, and had hoped to use a recent monthly event to impress her enough to ask her out on a date. Of course, Ami would have entertained him regardless of how well they did in the tournament, but that didn't stop the enemy from transforming Ryo into a Neo-Youma that attempted to eviscerate the woman he cared about. But like Makoto, Sailor Mercury cured Ryo and when the battle was over, Ami and Ryo started dating.

"He's doing fine. We see each other next week, he's taking me to a concert in the Shibuya district," Ami replied with a smile of her own. "You heard about the Neo-Youma attack from a couple of days ago? Usagi says she wants to introduce us to an ally that can help us with the enemy."

"Yeah, I heard. Usagi's really been taking all of this seriously since Mamoru disappeared. Back when we first met her, we had to practically drag her out to help us out, but lately she's stepped it up big time," Makoto said before turning to Motoki and smiling. "It goes to show what having someone you want to protect will do for your motivation. Hopefully it all pans out in the end."

"It will, don't worry," Ami put her hand gently on Makoto's shoulder. "Want to get a set in before we head out?"

Before Makoto could answer that, her senses suddenly tingled at the presence of an immense spirit energy, causing her to turn to the automatic doors of the arcade where the source of the tingling stepped through. There were two young men speaking to Motoki inaudibly. Both of them were quite handsome: the one talking directly to Motoki wearing a dark blue hoodie with black workout pants, with short but clearly soft blonde hair. The taller man next to him had considerably longer hair: a dark black mane that went down to his waist. He also wasn't too prudent about showing off his body, wearing a bluish-green athletic t-shirt that hugged his body to reveal his incredibly toned body.

No doubt about it: it was the body of a martial artist, and confirmed Makoto's belief that this had to have been the source of what she felt when they walked in. Still, they were just ordinary young men, right? No matter how strong those two were, the spirit energy they gave off was on equal footing to the other Sailor Senshi. Were they Neo-Youma that hadn't yet revealed their true colors? Makoto realized that Ami wasn't sensing anything and decided to keep her suspicions to herself and Motoki pointed the two strangers to them.

"Ami Mizuno?" the blonde young man asked a bit impetuously. When Ami nodded her head, he bowed his head once before motioning to the arcade machine next to them. "Some of the other players in the area said you usually come here to warm up around this time. Let's have a set! I'm entering the Super Battle Opera, too."

"Um, of course," Ami bowed her head before taking a seat at her side of the cabinet while the stranger sat on his side. "It's always good to meet a new rival! Let's have a good set!"

By this point, Ami had accumulated quite a reputation as an arcade player, and before the new enemy emerged she had a news article about her dual life as a doctor and as a player. Thanks to this, there was a target on her back that players from other arcades and areas honed in on. The bad news was that it made it difficult for Ami to visit Motoki's venue for reasons other than challenging other players because a new gauntlet would be thrown any time Ami wanted to relax in the karaoke parlor or play some of the other games. The good news was that having this target allowed Ami to meet Ryo, who she was currently involved with and enjoyed being around.

So naturally, Ami expected to roll over the newcomer like she had the past several challengers since she arrived a little over an hour earlier. Her win counter was sitting at a very neat 30 game win streak...until two minutes later, when the challenger took the first game. There was an awkward pause where neither side said a word, as both Ami and Makoto stared the screen unable to immediately comprehend what had just happened. The end of Ami's streak wasn't even a hotly-contested fight: the challenger completely dominated the entire match and won on an inevitability.

"Are you just trying to lull him into a false sense of security?" Makoto asked

"No...no, he's good. I haven't faced someone this good in a while," Ami said as she reached for another token for the first time that evening. "Don't worry, I think I've got this. I'll let you know when I'm done."

"Hey, in the meantime," the long-haired youth interjected as he turned to Makoto. "Are you by any chance Makoto Furuhata? I recall being told that the person who ran this place had a wife who did mixed martial arts."

"Hm? Yeah, that's me."

"My name is Shiryu," the young man introduced himself far more cordially than his blonde friend, walking over to the other side of the cab and firmly shaking Makoto's hand. "I would be honored if you would have a match with me over at Mocap Boxing. I've always wanted to spar with a professional, and I figure this would be as good of a way as any without us going out back and having a street f-..."

Shiryu fell silent as he felt the enormous spirit energy that Makoto possessed once he touched her, sending a shockwave through his body that stole the words out of him. Makoto could feel Shiryu's own massive inner strength, and both of their expressions temporarily hardened as they realized that both of them were far more than ordinary humans. Furthermore, they could sense that the other had figured this out about them, and there was an uneasy silence before nervous smiles formed on both their faces.

"Sounds...sounds like fun, Shiryu," Makoto said with a grin before they cautiously broke the handshake and walked over to the Mocap Boxing cabinet. The reason Shiryu picked this game was the same reason Makoto would use it to keep her cardio up when she decided to spend the day supporting her husband at the Crown: it was a game that demanded very active participation, punching with gloves as heavy as any real boxing glove with the cardio, weaving, and ducking that a real boxer would do in a match. And of course, their pride would ensure that they would go all-out.

The two combatants put their tokens in and immediately went to work. Makoto had a habit of letting her opponent come at her and then counter-attack, but Shiryu's avatar came at her with such ferocity that she barely had enough time to put her gloves up for a block. She looked at the screen and was relieved to see she had taken no damage, but was soon back on the defensive as she ducked under a quick swipe. Makoto rose up with an uppercut, but Shiryu's avatar weaved to the side and took advantage with a cross that put Makoto's avatar down.

The referee counted to five before Makoto's avatar stood up and resumed the fight. Shiryu was no slouch to get such a convincing start against a professional like Makoto, especially considering all of the additional intuitions that being Sailor Jupiter granted her even when out of costume. At this point, Makoto decided she had enough "feeling out" and decided push the offensive this time.

Makoto led with a feint that Shiryu's avatar blocked, but followed through with a hit from the opposite side that tagged the avatar in the jaw. He went down in a heap and Makoto took a moment to realize she had already worked up a good sweat. She had a major real-life fight coming up in a little under a month, one that could potentially elevate her to the next level of competition, yet Shiryu was pushing her harder than any other opponent she had faced in the ring. Who was this guy, and how was it that Makoto had never met him before?

The avatar was back up and Makoto didn't feel like letting him back in so quickly. She went for another feint, but Shiryu's avatar simply let loose a hook punch that dropped Makoto's avatar like a sack of potatoes. Not only was Shiryu incredibly quick, he was able to adapt almost instantly to Makoto's plan of attack. At any rate, one more knockdown would spell the end for Makoto, so now she had to return the favor or she would lose the match.

There was a pause between the two fighters as Makoto's avatar returned to her feet: a tense moment that was broken when Shiryu charged forward with a ducking straight. Rather than block, Makoto took a risk and ducked herself, before rising up with an uppercut that struck true and put Shiryu's avatar down for a second time. Now they were tied at a game apiece, and Shiryu's avatar returned to its feet. And although Makoto couldn't tell from her side of the machine, the young man's long locks were gleaming with sweat, as was his face. He was just as impressed with Makoto as Makoto was impressed with him.

Once more, there was an incredibly tense moment where neither fighter attacked nor assumed a defensive position, only taking sharp breaths while their fists remained raised in preparation for what happens next. The two had become so engaged in their fight that they now had a crowd around the machine as truly invested in their battle as they would any real fight. Such was the culture of those who frequented the Crown, where two masters of their craft left everything hanging out for the world to see. Even Ami's match with the newcomer on the other side of the arcade didn't have the raw hype as the exchange Makoto and Shiryu were engaging in.

Finally, the moment was shattered as both fighters went for feints. Makoto led in the exact same way that she did before, and Shiryu's avatar reacted by going for another cross...but then Makoto weaved once more even though her arm was still extend. Then, with piston-like efficiency, Makoto retracted her previous punch and then punched with the opposite arm with great force. The attack struck true, and Shiryu's avatar went down for the final time. Winner by knockout: Makoto Furuhata.

The crowd applauded the effort of both combatants, snapping Makoto and Shiryu out of the moment and into reality. Stepping away from the cabinet and facing one another, the two gazed into the other's eyes and witnessed the incredible power that lay within each of them. Shiryu's eyes had the emerald fury of a raging dragon, and Makoto's eyes were windows to the unlimited energy of Jupiter. And again, this was not something that escaped the attention of the other. Even as they shook hands once more and put on a smile, their grip tightened as if to challenge each other once more.

Realizing they were staring at each other a little bit too deeply, Makoto shifted her eyes downward and noticed a bracelet that Shiryu had been wearing: an emerald dragon head with red eyes. Shiryu noticed her gaze had shifted downward and wondered what she was looking at...and that's when Shiryu noticed Makoto's own bracelet: the heart-shaped morpher with an emerald jewel that glowed with power. "So...that explains it."

"...explains what?" Makoto raised an eyebrow.

"...I don't suppose you know an Usagi Chiba, do you?"

So engrossed were the crowd in the duel at Mocap Boxing that they didn't realize that Ami and Hyoga had exhausted both their tokens facing each other in an extremely hotly-contested set. As it came to an end, Ami and Hyoga stood from their cabinets and grinned at each other. "That...that was incredible," Ami said with baited breath before reaching over to shake the young man's hand. "Good games, sir!"

"Yeah, that was fun," he replied with a smile before reaching out to shake Ami's hand. "Good games!"

And like Makoto and Shiryu, it was when they made contact with one another that Ami and the young man realized the incredible power they possessed beneath that veneer of civility. Their respective touches were colder than ice, reaching the point of absolute zero: something that even the most advanced devices in science had difficulty achieving. Thanks to their respective powers, they refrained from recoiling from one another, instead taking a moment to realize what they were feeling, and then slowly breaking the handshake so that they didn't arouse the other's suspicion.

"What's your name?" Ami asked with a polite smile, silently asking herself what she just felt from this normal-looking youth.

"It's Hyoga," the blonde player replied.

"Ami," Makoto called out as she and Shiryu walked over to their respective friends. Leaning in to speak quietly, Makoto whispered what she had discovered. "These two are friends of that guy who helped Usagi out with the Neo-Youma. They're meeting up with the rest of us at the same place Usagi wanted to call us all together."

"Yeah, I figured," Ami whispered back. "His touch is colder than ice. The only other person I know with that kind of touch is me when I'm Sailor Mercury."

"...no doubt about it. These two have to be Sailor Senshi," Hyoga muttered to Shiryu. "Mizuno's cosmo is almost as cold as mine. The only other person close to that kind of touch is my master…"

"No kidding. Makoto's cosmo almost had me jump out of my skin. It's like she has the power of a lightning bolt inside of her," Shiryu replied before all four party members leaned over and smiled at one another. "So, I was just telling my friend here that your friend Usagi is meeting up with our friend Seiya at the Saitama Mall. Maybe we could all head over there together?"

"That sounds like it could be fun," Ami replied cheerfully.

"I'm telling you, baby, there's some real romantic potential in culling the general population if you get my meaning. Just imagine it: the two of us together, making people explode in a blast of gory glory. It's empowering, y'know? I bet you'd love making sweet music to that…"

Michiru did her best to ignore the "sweet nothings" of Deathmask as she focused on her tea opposite of her lover Haruka, who only glared at the male psychopath sitting across from them. As Outer Senshi who took an oath to complete their mission no matter the cost, Cancer Deathmask was exactly the type of individual that Haruka and Michiru would terminate with extreme prejudice. He reeked with so much blood that even the "normal" people around them gave him space as he continued rambling about destruction, loud enough for everyone else around him to hear.

Furthermore, they were still quite bitter at what had happened at the Greek restaurant earlier in the week. While Setsuna was a thorn in their side, Haruka and Michiru still viewed her as a comrade that simply had an unconventional view of their mission: they only wished to intimidate her into standing down until she came to her senses and realized that joining up with Fiore was a necessary evil to prevent the Princess from falling into darkness. Setsuna was incredibly powerful, but she wouldn't have risked going all-out with so many people around her. Haruka could have easily strong-armed her out of her morpher and thus put her out of action long enough for them to finish their business with the Inner Senshi.

Instead, Deathmask made it quite clear that he wasn't going to settle for anything less than a complete massacre, and almost blew their cover as Senshi. The confidentiality of a Senshi's secret life was almost an unbreakable law, and Deathmask saw it prudent to rub salt into the wound by asking Michiru out on a date after Fiore began negotiations with Sanctuary. "Hey, I wouldn't be against Haruka jumping in for a three-way dance! I've always wanted to try one of those…"

Turning away from Haruka, Michiru was about to publicly humiliate Deathmask when the sight of Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury caught her attention. The coffee shop they were sitting at was across the street from the Crown Arcade, and this was usually when Mercury and Jupiter got off of work to unwind with Jupiter's husband before they headed home. Fiore had ordered them to track them with the expectations that they would be meeting with individuals of mutual interest. Sure enough, two young men with intense spirit energy trailed behind them, and the quartet walked away from the Crown together.

"Ooooh...so Cygnus and Dragon have teamed up with your rivals?" Deathmask hummed before focusing his cosmo into his fist. "Now you girls can help me take out both your enemies and mine at the same time. Don't you just love superhero team-ups?"

"You're about as far off from a superhero as I'm as far off from growing an extra nipple," Michiru growled before pulling out her cell phone and dialing the number Fiore gave them when they first formed their alliance. After a couple of rings, the familiar mechanical tinge of Gesen responded over the phone. "I need to speak with Fiore. The targets are heading away from the Crown and towards the meeting spot."

"Master Fiore has already begun implementing the next phase of the plan," Gesen replied. "I will let him know that the remaining unchecked elements have begun moving. In the meantime, you should try the meringue cookies. When I lived around there, my mother would always bring some home before the weekend."

"Will do," Michiru responded with sarcastic politeness before hanging up and rolling her eyes. What Gesen wasn't aware of was that Deathmask had already purchased all of the meringue cookies in the store, eaten four of them, and then threw the rest away just so he could deny others the opportunity to eat them. It was already too late in the day for the shop to make more, so Michiru was denied a sweet tweat and instead given a rotten dish in the form of Deathmask's rambling while in his sugar rush.

Fiore had given them a general overview of his master plan to thin the ranks of the Inner Senshi and Bronze Saints so that they wouldn't have to worry about facing both teams at full strength, and at first Michiru and Haruka balked at the idea that it would actually work. But Fiore was not a stupid man: if he said it was going to work, then chances are he was making every effort to ensure it would. The most they could do now was wait, and count the moments until they achieved ultimate victory, at which point they would break their alliance with Deathmask and teach him a lesson he would never forget...


	5. Act V

With an exasperated sigh, Rei Hino accepted the fact that she was going to be late.

She could already hear his ramblings now the next time the enemy showed their face and he decided to intervene like he always did. "You're the red warrior, you should lead by example!" Of course, the likelihood of him showing up at the meeting was highly improbable unless there were evildoers to be smashed, but Usagi had a way of blabbing about things that didn't need to be shared publicly, and he had a tendency to somehow twist everything in life to involve the never-ending struggle of good and evil. But Rei had grown weary of him butting into the lives of her fellow Senshi a long time ago.

Therefore, the most she could hope for was that in case he did pop up, none of the other Senshi brought it up when they went into battle together. And it's not like she didn't have an excuse. Her date with Yuichiro at the amusement park went a little bit longer than expected, and the train to Saitama was running several minutes behind schedule. On top of that, Rei had to finish her college classes, which took priority over...actually, Rei might have told herself that, but that wasn't true. Usagi and the others were responsible for her maturation from anti-social teenage girl into a cool-headed, mature young woman.

Before she remembered her past life as Sailor Mars, Rei was the mysterious shrine maiden who was rumored to study witchcraft and place hexes on innocent people, both of which were entirely untrue and only worsened her mistrust of people. Upon meeting Usagi, Rei found herself wanting to protect her ideals for reasons completely independent from her duties as a Senshi. In fact, her protectiveness often brought her into conflict with the other Sailor Senshi early in their bouts with the Dark Kingdom, and even as the Dark Kingdom began to crumble she would still be at odds on occasion.

As Rei stepped out of the Saitama train station and began her trek to the mall, she smiled to herself and realized very little had changed since then. As soon as the last remnants of the Dark Kingdom were erased along with the Senshi's memories of the battle, Rei went right back to being her usual stoic self. Her current boyfriend Yuichiro pestered her for months hoping to get to know her better, and up until the new enemy showed up Rei would turn him away without fail.

Of course, that all changed with Rei made a sacrifice for Yuichiro and wound up being turned into a Neo-Youma. Yuichiro then put life and limb on the line to try and bring her back to her senses, and miraculously succeeded with the help of...that man who repulsed Rei almost as much as the enemy. The spirit of Sailor Mars was revived, cleared Rei of the Neo-Youma impurity corrupting her flesh, and thus she returned to active Senshi duty. But Rei remembered what Yuichiro did, and they had been romantically involved since then.

Quite frankly, Rei determined that if the Senshi gave her grief for being late, she would respond by saying that they weren't the boss of her, and if they had a problem with that, it was just too-

"This…!"

Rei's eyes widened in shock as a spirit energy unlike anything she had ever felt before, even in her strange career as Sailor Mars, brushed against her like a torch blazing by. Normally her even temper allowed her to shake off things like this, but on this rare occasion, she was spooked enough to freeze in place and hold her breath. What an overwhelming power...it was as if she was being stalked by an alpha predator and she was helpless prey.

Worse yet, the source of that power hadn't walked away. He felt her power just as she felt his.

Slowly turning her head, Rei instantly identified what triggered her bad vibrations. He was a man about Rei's age, and of medium, muscular build. His highly trained body, chiseled and hard, was evident even with his black and gold baseball shirt, though he made sure to wear short sleeves so that his granite-like arms made it clear that he was no one to be trifled with. And then there was that glare he was giving Rei...that sinister glint in his eye that cried out for murder. Could this man be an enemy? And if he was, how was Rei going to handle it with so many people still around?

The seconds ticked slowly like hours as Rei steeled her nerves and prepared for the stranger to attack...but the glare softened and the man turned away before continuing his stroll through the park en route to the Saitama Mall. The raven-haired priestess could feel her heart race with excitement as logic washed away the unprecedented fear that came over her. It was highly out of character for Rei to be overcome by an emotion like that, but something about that man triggered a base instinct impossible to shrug off. Usagi mentioned that their get-together would involve being introduced to new allies in the war with the enemy...maybe that man was one of them…

...or maybe he was a wolf in sheep's clothing, and Usagi was inadvertently leading the other Senshi in a trap.

Using her control of her spirit energy to bring it down to almost nothing now that she had confirmed that the stranger sensed her power, Rei clandestinely followed him through the park until he realized that he had veered off course from the shortcut that led to the mall. Now he was in a playground clearing surrounded by a wall of trees, which gave Rei plenty of space for her to hide behind one of the trees and watch the stranger suddenly stand in front of the swings and call out, "I know you're there. You might as well come out!"

Rei cursed through her thoughts at her lack of stealth. Even when lowering her spirit energy to nothing, clapping along in her heels didn't really help her sneak around. The stranger didn't feel the need to hide his spirit energy and let it ignite to such a degree that Rei could actually see his fiery aura manifest itself around its body. With his wild dark hair accompanying his strong facial features and that intimidating glare, he seemed far less like a human and more like something beyond it. Maybe he was possessed and Rei needed to perform an impromptu exorcism.

Luckily for both of them, the stranger apparently wasn't addressing Rei. Instead, another young woman wearing a violet leotard under a silver armored bikini (pick one or the other because together they negate the fashion statement each one makes on their own, Rei mused) with matching boots and gauntlets stepped forward. Her green hair was left free while her face was covered with a silver mask, while her violet fingernails were sharpened into veritable claws. "Phoenix Ikki," the woman said lowly before pointing an accusing finger at the man, "you overstep your boundaries as a Bronze Saint to be speaking to a Silver Saint like myself thusly."

"Then you shouldn't have been spying on me," the man called Ikki shot back. "I'm only going to say this once, Shaina: stay out of my business! I've been lenient in our battles so far because Seiya has a soft spot for you, but I'm beginning to think I'd rather listen to whatever lecture he'll have in store for me than put up with you invading my privacy!"

"Such insolence! You clearly need to be put in your place, Phoenix," Shaina exclaimed before baring her claws and lunging at Ikki like the snake that adorned her crown. "Prepare to be sent to Judecca!"

Ikki narrowly dodged the savage swipe from Shaina's claws before she turned around for a backhanded swipe. Unfortunately for Shaina, it was not the smartest move she could make as it left herself wide open for Ikki to duck under the attack and strike Shaina squarely in the gut with a blow to the solar plexus. Even though Shaina was a woman, Ikki held nothing back from the attack: Rei could see pieces of his aura shoot out from Shaina's back even though she took the blow in the front. He certainly wasn't a gentlemen…

Shaina miraculously wasn't unconscious or broken in half by the attack, and instead stumbled backwards as Ikki reared back his fist once more, this time for a knockout blow. The masked woman regained enough control to weave away from the attack and counter with a punch of her own, one that struck Ikki in the face and stunned him long enough for Shaina to deliver a spinning side kick to Ikki's chest with sufficient force to topple him over. Given the way Shaina dived at him to start this fight, Rei figured her next step would have been to pounce upon him and begin ripping him to shreds.

Instead, hands of shimmering white armor popped out of the ground and latched around Ikki's wrists, binding him to the ground so that Shaina could THEN attempt to tear him to pieces like a wild animal. Lifting his feet before the hands coming out of the ground could take them as well, Ikki delivered a double kick to Shaina as she came down, launching her away before breaking the hold of the hands and quickly flipping back up to his feet and assuming a proper fighting stance. Once it was clear that Ikki was no longer on the ground, the mysterious hands dug themselves from the ground and revealed their full bodies.

A little over a dozen warriors in white armor wearing ebony masks dug themselves out of the earth and moaned aggressively as Ikki while Shaina stood back up and folded her arms. "Phoenix Saint, today your sins will finally be judged and punished! Carrying out your sentence will be the proof of our sacred Pope Ares' mercy and understanding. Maybe if you're fortunate, he'll allow you to join their ranks and atone for the numerous sins you've accumulated!"

"Yes, because being turned into a Spectre Pure is much more preferable than being sent to the underworld for my natural judgment," Ikki said without bothering to mask his sarcasm even in the slightest. "Your heretical Pope took these men from their resting places and erased their souls so that everything they were before becoming a Spectre was completely wiped from existence. No Heaven, no Hell, no Purgatory...they simply ceased to exist, so that he could turn their shells into cannon fodder!"

The first of the Spectre Pures let out a maddened moan before attempting to slice Ikki's head off with the blades on his gauntlets. Ikki made sure the zombie paid for it by focusing all of his rage into his fist and driving it into the center of its head. The head vibrated violently upon impact as Ikki kept his fist extended: it would have easily killed any living person. But eventually the head stopped vibrating, and the Spectre Pure turned around to take another swipe at him. It wasn't until Ikki reared back his elbow and delivered a second punch that the head finally reached its limit and splintered the mask covering it.

Beneath the mask was a wet skull with the maggots within being burned alive by Ikki's energy. "This is why Seiya is a fool to care for you, Shaina," Ikki growled as he turned to the other Spectre Pures who prepared to charge. "How can anyone who supports this perversion of death used for purely selfish ends be someone who fights for the sake of peace? You may call us traitors, but I'd rather be a traitor to a corrupt outfit like Sanctuary than be a slave to it!"

"Then I shouldn't have to dirty my hands on a filthy traitor like you," Shaina retorted as the unmasked Spectre finally collapsed onto the ground and dissolved into a foam-like substance that sizzled and charred the grass beneath it. "I play with you Bronze Saints strictly out of my respect for your warrior prowess! But since you find it prudent to mock me, I'll let the Spectre Pures feast on your flesh while I attend to your friends!"

"What!? Come back here-ACK!"

As soon as Ikki turned around to chase after Shaina as she retreated into the trees, one of the Spectre Pures finally drew his blood with a slash across his back. With an angered hiss, Ikki turned around and delivered a jumping roundhouse kick to his head, leaving a visible intent in both the helmet and the skull underneath. Now he was fully incensed, and prepared to let himself get lost in his natural aggression. Besides, he was doing them a favor for putting them out of their misery versus the prospect of continuing to "live" as soulless revenants.

As Ikki plunged into the dozen of Spectre Pures looking to literally take their piece of flesh from him, Rei felt a more familiar evil presence quickly approaching her. Turning around just in time to avoid a punch, her eyes widened as she looked at the gray fist that made the tree next to her expel bark and splinters, and for a second let her imagination come up with a scenario where she had been a fraction slower and it was her skull that splintered into pieces rather than the bark of the tree. Then she turned to face her attacker, and saw the vine-laden face of Fiore's mutated Golem Troopers.

Rei and the other Sailor Senshi had grown rather acquainted to the grey foot soldiers that accosted them throughout much of their superhero careers, even before the new enemy made themselves known. When Rei first encountered the Golem Troopers, they were wearing black cloaks and moved about in accordance to the will of the evil entity Metaria, often aiding the Dark Kingdom's attempts to cause chaos. The Senshi assumed that they were destroyed along with Metaria, but instead they fell into a state of dormancy before Fiore came into the present and repurposed them. With alien flowers embedded into their chests, the Golem Troopers now acted under Fiore's orders with even more ferocity and strength than before.

Too bad for them, Rei had become far stronger since the Golem Troopers were running around in black cloaks. Even with their increased power, Rei was able to kick the Golem's footing out from under it, forcing it to fall face-first into the branch of the tree, giving her the space needed to stand up and face the other Golems. She briefly prepared to transform into Sailor Mars, but then remembered the purpose of being at the park. She still needed to see what Ikki was about, and revealing herself didn't seem like the best idea. Thankfully he was still pre-occupied with his own problems so Rei could at least exert herself.

The Golem that fell over scrambled back to its feet and attempted to impale Rei with the thorns on its gloves, but Rei had never lost track of what happened to it and delivered a knee to its stomach followed by a ki-infused chop to its neck, igniting the vines wrapped around it. The fire quickly spread throughout the rest of its vines, and soon the feminine flower in the Golem's chest began to shriek in agony. Recognizing it at the death knell of that particular Golem, Rei turned to the others and shot them a lethal glare rivaling the one that Ikki gave her.

The vaguest hint of consciousness was displayed at the Golems cautiously jumped back when Rei stepped forward, but the will of the flowers made them go back on the offensive, this time all at once. The first two that came at her once again went for high swipes, but Rei couched down and swept them off their feet to leave them in a heap. As Rei returned to a standing position, one of the downed Golems grabbed onto her ankle and scratched it, cutting through her stocking and eliciting a shout of pain before she ignited her ki once more and set the Golem's flower ablaze with a fiery stomp.

Next up was a Golem who seemed to get the idea that going for wide swipes wasn't the way to go, and instead it struck Rei from behind with a pushing kick to her waist. Stumbling forward where other Golems were waiting, Rei muttered a quick sutra and summoned a pair of fireball in both hands before crashing into the group with burning fists. None of them caught fire, but at least it gave Rei a chance to stay on the offensive. If she transformed here, the quarry would surely be lost.

" _He wants to kill her…"_

"What...what's that?" Rei heard a voice cut through the air, coming from all sides. Another enemy? It didn't sound like anyone from Fiore's group. However, even as the voice continued to talk to her, she focused on defeating the Golems in front of her.

" _Protect your Princess. Destroy the Bronze Saints."_

"Saints?" Rei repeated as she struck down another Golem. "That man...he's a Saint, right?"

 _Protect the universe. Destroy Galaxia._

"AAGH," Ikki roared as a vision painful and unfamiliar was forcefully pushed into his psyche, even as he forcefully pushed his foot through the masked face of the final Spectre Pure. Psychic attacks were not especially uncommon among the ranks of Sanctuary, especially with the Gold Saints. But Ikki knew what the cosmo of someone who followed Athena's will felt like, and whatever was sending him transmissions had nothing of the sort. This cosmo was decisively alien, unlike any human Ikki had encountered. So either it came from the Gods themselves...or, more likely…

"To protect the universe, you must destroy Galaxia."

Determining that the voice this time was physical, Ikki turned around and ignored the visions of mayhem, attempting to focus on the reality of the hooded man wearing the white cloak with black streaks. Though his face was mostly obscured through the shadows of his hood, strands of his long teal hair spilled out from the front and fell to his chest. "You...are definitely not human," Ikki said after a pause before groaning. His grip on reality was quickly fading, and soon he found himself completely lost in a delusion. "What are you doing to me? Who are you?"

"I am a friend who has come from the stars to give you a warning," the unknown man explained as the park's decor shifted to an urban wasteland covered in flames and screams. Ikki recognized some of the wrecked buildings: they were in Akibahara. At least, it used to be Akibahara before whatever came through it turned it into a graveyard. There wasn't even enough time to bury those who died, because they were strewn about with the foul smell of their decay burning Ikki's nostrils. "I take it you know where we are?"

"I know where we are," Ikki growled before turning back to the hooded man and entering his fighting stance, "but you're going to have to try way harder than that to scare me. I think I'll send you to Hell so you can mull over crossing me!"

"And how will you do that? By drowning my psyche in my greatest fears?"

Ikki froze in place as the hooded man outstretched his hand to reveal the sharp blue nails that adorned his otherwise humanoid hand. "Phoenix Saint, I am appealing to you because I was told that you are the most realistic of the Bronze Saints, as well as the most ferocious. I know you will be the one to save your city from the calamity you see before you," the stranger said before pointing to a commotion several yards away that was rapidly approaching. "Right now I am showing you my deepest fear, shifted to match your Earthly perceptions. If you do not stop her, we'll both have to come face-to-face with our nightmares becoming reality."

"No one has ever called me sensible, especially not anyone looking to call themselves an altruist," Ikki grumbled as the commotion rapidly moved closely like a freight train. "Well, whatever it is, I'm going to shatter this illusion and then do the same to your head. The next time you want to convince me of something, you'd be better off just facing me man-to-man instead of...of...my God…"

Ikki was notoriously difficult to scare, to a point where he centered his martial art's most devastating attack around drowning his victims in the fear he never felt, but once the source of the commotion came into view, Ikki felt true fear for the first time since he started his training as a Saint. Visually, she was quite beautiful, adorned in gold and jewels with a crown that shimmered in the fire. But that cosmo she possessed was stronger than anything Ikki felt before. No one, not even the vaunted Gold Saints, had a cosmo nearly as intense as the woman who made the survivors scream, the roads churn, and building explode with simple glances and waves.

This was not just a woman, she was a force of nature. She was a tornado, a black hole, a meteor that fell from the stars and promptly obliterated everything it landed on. Like all forces of nature that came to remind mankind how mortal they were, especially the notably devastating ones, this calamity had a name, and it's name was…

"...Sailor Moon."

"Eh?" Ikki turned to the hooded man in confusion. Sailor Moon was the name of the young woman who helped Seiya stave off a monster attack earlier in the week. And even before then, Ikki had known Sailor Moon as a warrior of peace. But at the same time, he knew that the worst monsters often hid in the sweetest of souls. The legend of Hades, the sworn enemy of all Saints, was that he would revive in the body of the purest human on Earth, and Ikki secret primary reason for siding with Seiya was that he wished to protect his innocent brother Shun from that fate.

"And that's why you know what must be done."

"...yes," Ikki nodded his head as he focused all of his cosmo into his fist and unleashed it in the form of a phoenix, expanding like a carpet until it was like a fiery canopy. The bird shrieked in unison with Ikki's howls, and sent it after the woman in gold. The entity only glanced to the bird of fire, but her eyes widened so that she could summon her godlike power to deflect the attacking manifestation. "In order to protect my family, my friends, and the universe, I must defeat Galaxia. I must defeat...Sailor Moon!"

"Say it once more, Ikki."

"I must protect the universe."

"And how will you do that?"

"I must destroy Sailor Moon!"

"EEEEEH!? You already have a girlfriend?"

"Mm," Shun nodded his head proudly before pulling up a picture on his cell phone with a blonde-haired foreign woman wearing an emotionless white mask. "Her name is June, we've known each other since we first started training as Saints. You might not be able to tell in this picture, but she's the kindest woman I've ever met. I doubt I would have survived my training if I didn't have her at my side during those years."

"Awww...my OTP has been ruined," Usagi groaned as she moved away from Shun's phone and went back to focusing on bottle-feeding her daughter. "When I saw you and Minako on stage, I just knew it was meant to be. My shipping senses have never betrayed me before." Suddenly, her expression became slightly devious as she turned back to Shun and grinned. "So, you said you trained on some deserted island? Do you still keep in touch? How do you know she hasn't found someone else?"

"USAGI!"

"OUCH," Usagi immediately reacted to Minako slapping her hard in the back of the head. "I'm just throwing some theories out! You don't have to be so mean, Minako!"

"How about you stop making wild assumptions about my personal life, and stop pressuring others to confirm to your stupid headcanons," Minako growled before turning to Shun and giving him an exasperated glance. "I am SO sorry that Usagi here is acting like this. Without her husband to keep her in line, she has a tendency to embarrass herself in public with comments like the one she just gave you."

"No, it's fine," Shun waved it off before looking back to his cell phone, "but it's true. I haven't heard a word from her since I came back to Japan. I miss her dearly, but I know she feels the same. We made a vow before we left that we'd never forget each other, and once I took care of business, I'd come back to her and I would finally get to see her face. I bet she's as breathtakingly beautiful as her voice, her kindness...her warmth."

"Well, how can I not ship that? I'm sure she still thinks of you every day," Usagi said with a smile of her own. "And that's exactly why we're going to have a big meet-up! With my friends and your friends, we'll put our heads together and defeat both our enemies way quicker than if we did it by ourselves! The sooner we take down the big bads, the sooner Mamoru will come back to me, and the sooner you can go back to June and serenade her with your guitar before getting down on your knees and-"

"Usagi, knock it off!"

"I was going to say 'give her a ring and propose!' You need to get your mind out of the gutter, Minako!"

"I...ugh, whatever, Usagi."

A couple of minutes later, Usagi, Minako, and Shun arrived at the garden area of the Saitama mall, neatly paved with marble, concrete, and memories. Both the Senshi and the Saints had experienced several battles with Fiore and Sanctuary on these grounds, and with those experiences came recollection of how good it felt to overcome the tests thrown at them and celebrate with their comrades at the shops and food courts nearby. Usagi had a particularly nice restaurant within the mall in mind after they made the initial pleasantries.

"There there are! Usagi-san, over here!"

Seiya's voice called out to the trio as they approached his group, consisting of Ami, Makoto, Shiryu, and Hyoga. When everyone reached each other and introduced themselves, Seiya smiled proudly before wrapping his arms around the group as much as he could given how many of them there are. "Isn't this exciting? We always heard rumors that there was another team of heroes running about, but to think we had this much in common. It's like we're Rule 63s of each other!"

"That...that's kind of weird," Ami replied with a nervous grin before turning to Hyoga. "Are you training to be a doctor too, Hyoga?"

"I've thought about it, but I don't have nearly enough money for med school," Hyoga replied as Seiya released them and allowed them to return to an upright position. "So all that's left is Ikki and your friend Rei. Don't be surprised if Ikki doesn't show up: he has a tendency to do whatever he wants regardless of what's good for the team, and only pokes his head in when there's a battle to be fought."

"Well, I think you'll like Rei: she's completely responsible unlike certain other people on our team," Minako added as she turned to Usagi with a stern glare. However, it quickly turned to a playful smile. "But she tries her best, and has grown up a lot since we first met. I'm glad to that she was able to get us all together like this."

"Sailor Moon?"

An unfamiliar voice came within earshot as the group turned around to see Ikki glaring at Usagi with his fists clenched. "Oh, hey, it's Ikki," Seiya said with excitement. "Hey Ikki, this is that girl I was telling about, and this is Ami, Makoto-"

"Sailor Moon...this is the end!"

"Wait, what?"

"PHOENIX GENMA KEN!"

With Usagi greatly confused and unsure what was about to happen, Seiya sprang into action and quickly pushed her out of the way. With his back now facing Ikki, Seiya braced himself for the most fearsome of Ikki's fighting techniques...but was spared the danger of the attack by Sailor Mars running in the way several seconds beforehand and catching the attack in her fiery hands. When Seiya realized they were no longer in danger, he helped Usagi back on her feet and turned to face Ikki. "What is your problem, Ikki!? Do you realize she has a baby in her arms!? What would you have done if I wasn't there?"

"She'd be dead, and the universe would be saved," Ikki growled before turning to the raven-haired, red-clad warrior of fire. "You're the woman I saw on the way here, the one with the really strong cosmo! I should have figured you were following me!"

"Usagi, get Chibiusa to safety and hide," Sailor Mars growled as she pushed Ikki away. "These Saints are not your friends! They're secretly working with Fiore!"

"No...I won't let you get away, monster," Ikki roared before focusing his fiery cosmo into his bird-shaped morpher and letting out a battle cry. "CLOTH CHANGER!" With that verbal command, Ikki summoned his Phoenix cloth and prepared to call forth the full extent of his power, but the other Saints quickly held him back while the Senshi did the same with Sailor Mars.

"Ni-san, what are you doing!? It isn't like you to-"

" _Protect the universe. Destroy Galaxia."_

"Rei, can we turn it down a notch? I know you're distrustful of strangers but-"

" _Protect the Princess. Destroy the Bronze Saints."_

As soon as the other Saints and Senshi made contact with their comrades, the message that drove them into animosity spread like cracks through glass. Their expressions hardened into violent glares, and those glares became directed as the Saints and Senshi opposite of them. "...Usagi," Minako said coolly as she let go of Rei so that Ami and Makoto could stand next to them. "Take Chibiusa and hide out at the usual spot. We'll come back as soon as we finish business here."

"Seiya," Shiryu growled as his comrades stood next to him in opposition to the Senshi. "Make sure she doesn't get away. The universe is depending on you."

"Errrgh, NONE OF YOU ARE MAKING ANY SENSE," Seiya exclaimed as he rapidly ran his fingers through his hair, watching the two sides transform in a flash of light before facing off. "In case you forgot, we're all supposed to be on the same side! How about we sit down and talk about this before we start throwing hands?"

"Seiya, we have to put a stop to this," Usagi told her Saint opposite as she opened her backpack to pull out the stuffed toy acting as Luna's vessel. "Luna, do you think you can watch Chibiusa?"

"Just bring us over to that bench and I'll make sure nothing happens," the toy responded. "But be careful! We don't know anything about what these Saints can do!"


	6. Act VI

When Mu first felt that large gathering of powerful cosmos as he passed by the Saitama area on his way to dinner, the first emotion he felt was elation.

As a powerful psychic as well as the Bronze Saints' most powerful and reliable ally in the war against Sanctuary, Mu had long anticipated that one day his younger comrades would encounter the Sailor Senshi, and dreamed of forming an alliance between the two sides to aid one another in their times of crisis. Unlike most of the Gold Saints he used to work with, Mu realized that there were forces at work beyond the scope of Sanctuary, and there would come a time where the Pantheon of old would finally be laid to rest and new powers would rise in their place. Obviously Mu's main priority was cleaning up the corruption that was embedded in Sanctuary, but once that was done with the organization would need to remember its goal of protecting Earth from all threats that befell it. An alien that came from a dystopian future with the intent of rewriting the course of history with no regard of who was trampled along the way certainly qualified as just that.

His meeting with Sailor Pluto had been a complete success, having convinced her to cooperate with him now that the paths of their allies had begun to cross. In addition to this, the Inner Senshi and Bronze Saints had made amicable contact with one another and were planning a get-together to formally exchange pleasantries and discuss the possibility of long-term comradery. With great anticipation, Mu broke away from his bodyguards at Zamir Industries and donned his Aries Cloth so that he could officially bind the two sides together in a team that would surely blow away Pope Ares, Fiore, and anyone else who dared threaten the peace of the land.

But now he was standing at the top of the Saitama Mall, watching the two sides interact in considerably less-than-friendly ways.

"Mu!"

Hearing the angry voice of Sailor Pluto click towards him in the high heels of her morphed uniform, Mu slightly turned his head and flashed her a thin smile. "I see you felt it too, Dr. Meioh. Come on over, the show is just about to begin…"

"'Show?'' This is not something going on for your amusement, Mu," Sailor Pluto said sternly as she stepped next to Mu with her heart-tipped staff in hand. Like Mu, Setsuna Meioh also had a superhuman sense of premonition, being firmly in-tune with the past, present, and future. In the past, she was the guardian of time and space. In the future, she was the unwilling general of Serenity when the Moon Princess began a galactic reign of terror as Queen Galaxia. And in the present, she was a staunch ally of the Inner Senshi so that not only Galaxia's reign could be prevented, but so Serenity would continue to remain dormant within Usagi Chiba.

Also in the present, she was watching her younger comrades go face to face with Mu's, and it she could feel the waves of violent intent coming from both sides. "What are your Bronze Saints trying to do, Mu? The one you call the Phoenix Saint tried to murder the princess in cold blood! Now both of them are about to attack, and we're just standing here watching!"

"I'm just as surprised as you, doctor. Ikki might have a bad temper, but it's out-of-character to be brandishing his fists against opponents that aren't ready to face him," Mu responded as he pushed up his glasses and took note at how Usagi and Seiya were keeping their distance from the others. "It seems Seiya is also trying to find answers, which means something must have happened outside of his knowledge. I suspect your friend Fiore must have gotten into the other Saints' ear and told them of Mrs. Chiba's impending fate."

"No...fate is what we make of it, and there's still a chance to divert the princess from becoming Galaxia. That's why I agreed to help you join everyone together," Sailor Pluto shook her head before crouching down in preparation for a mighty leap. "I'm going down there and stopping this. You can either help me or-"

Mu interrupted her by putting his arm in front of her, though he kept his eyes on the battle taking place below. "Hold on. Let's sit and observe for now. We can't hold the hands of our kouhai forever, you know."

"But...they're fighting with everything they have! This could be dangerous!"

"It is through battle that one's true heart is revealed," Mu recited. "We'll intervene if it gets out of hand, but we should let them settle this on their own. If we do, we might be able to figure out what has gotten them in such a foul mood with one another, and avoid succumbing to whatever rage came over them."

* * *

"JUPITER SUPREME THUNDER!"

Green lightning erupted from Sailor Jupiter's tiara as the green-clad mistress of thunder attempted to electrocute her opponent in emerald dragon armor. The shield attached to the armor's left gauntlet came in handy as Shiryu lifted it to prevent the bolts from striking him on open skin, and thus he braced himself and waited for the massive output of energy to subside. The material his Dragon Cloth was made from was not native to the mortal plane, supposedly being handed down from Mt. Olympus and thus didn't share the electricity-conducting properties of Earth-born metal. Shiryu was quite aware of what would have happened if he had tried defending against the attack with anything other than a Cloth of Athena.

Hearing Sailor Jupiter's footsteps rapidly approaching, Shiryu lowered his hand and widened his eyes as he saw the woman charge at him with a running tackle. In his rush to engage in battle with his opposite in the Sailor Senshi, he temporarily forgot about the human woman acting as Sailor Jupiter's vessel. As such, he paid for his hubris by being tackled to the ground hard and subjected to mounted punches to his face. "I should have figured someone as good-looking and skilled as you was stirring up trouble," Makoto shouted as she concluded her assault and reached down to place Shiryu in a submission hold. "I should have figured by now that anyone who reminded me of my sempai would-WHOA!"

With sudden quickness, Shiryu slithered out of the hold and sat up only to fall back down with his elbow crashing down to the back of Makoto's head, driving her head into the pavement. With his foe stunned long enough for him to get back up on his feet, Shiryu let out a battle cry and delivered a front kick to the prone Makoto's sternum, kicking her off of her hands and legs and into the air before he spun around and sent her spiraling away with a spinning backfist. Makoto crashed onto the ground and rolled across it several feet before planting her hand on the ground and spinning back to her feet, her eyes narrowed in anger and her beautiful face dirtied with a couple of scrapes.

"That stance," Makoto said to herself as Shiryu's feet danced on the ground as he altered his hands in a steady motion. "Sempai was rather fond of Bruce Lee, as well. But if you're a real fan, you know that he always had trouble against grapplers. As soon as I get you back on the ground, you're not going to get away again."

"Then all I have to do is make sure I don't fall down again," Shiryu retorted before crouching down and launching himself at Makoto with a flying kick. The distance and velocity of the attack took Makoto off-guard: like the Sailor Senshi, the Saints of Athena were the definition of superhuman even if their morphed forms didn't greatly alter their natural appearances. As such, she only had time to put her hands up in a block as the full impact of Shiryu's kick sent a shockwave through her body and she skid across the ground but remained upright. Once Shiryu landed, he immediately continued his offense with advancing kicks and punches, whittling away at Makoto's guard until she finally put her arms down to counter-attack.

Shiryu finally had his opening and delivered a snapping punch between Makoto's eyes, stunning her enough for a standing thrust kick that put her back down on the ground, this time landing on her stomach. With his opponent prone on the ground, Shiryu focused his cosmo into his feet and took to the air. "DRAGON PLUMMET KICK!" The intent was clear, and Makoto rolled over onto her back and needed only a moment to know what the attack was going to do if it connected.

"JUPITER FLOWER HURRICANE!"

Makoto summoned a powerful gust of wind to disrupt the descent of Shiryu's flying stomp and kept him temporarily afloat, further altering his position in the air so that he would be coming back down on his face rather than his feet. Once the gust subsided, Shiryu crashed back down to earth head-first, and Makoto caught him in mid-air and drove his neck and shoulders into the ground with a falling powerbomb. The impact left a noticeable fissure in the pavement, but it wasn't enough to finish the match as Shiryu rolled with the attack and returned to his feet.

Makoto anticipated him returning to his feet, and focused her energy into her right arm and reared back for the next attack. But again, she underestimated Shiryu's resiliency as he already had his energy focused for a blow to her midsection. More accurately, they miscalculated each other's reflexes and came at one another with equal speed and force.

"DRAGON FANG SHOT!"

"JUPITER THUNDER LARIAT!"

And so, two forces of equal intensity collided with one another, with Sailor Jupiter's arm smashing into Shiryu's nose and the Dragon Saint's fist being driven into Makoto's stomach. Their respective energies clashed in the form of very visible emerald lightning that sent the both of them sprawling backwards and crashing in a heap. A few seconds later, they gingerly rose back up and smirked at each other.

"The 'one-inch punch?' Quite a name you gave it, Shiryu."

"Are you sure you're a mixed martial artist and not a joshi, Makoto? There aren't any chairs to save you here."

Returning to their fighting stances, Sailor Jupiter and the Dragon Saint wiped the blood from their mouths and then returned to action as their comrades continued fighting for their own beliefs.

* * *

"MARS FIRE SOUL!"

"PHOENIX FEATHERS!"

Sailor Mars and the Phoenix Saint immediately made their intentions known to each other by unleashing a storm of embers at one another, raising the temperature around them to such a degree that any ordinary human nearby would have immediately felt like they were coming down with a heat stroke, and that was anyone lucky enough to not be close enough to burst into flame. The powers the two of them wielded were arcane and primal, further made uncontrollable by their respective tempers that craved the utter destruction of anyone who threatened their friends. And on this day, that threat was each other, and neither was going to back down in this live-or-die struggle.

Once the tornado of embers reached its peak and completely engulfed the fire-wielding warriors, the two of them released their surge and let the tornado die around them as they charged one another with their hands aflame. "I should have taken you out at the park when I had the chance," Rei shouted as she lifted her leg for a cresent kick that Ikki ducked under. Ikki rose up for an uppercut, but Rei weaved out the way to strike Ikki in the face with a fiery slap. "I gave you the benefit of the doubt, but anyone who attacks defenseless women with a baby in their arms deserves the harshest punishment!"

"Heh," Ikki smirked as he rubbed where Rei slapped her, and then retaliated with a fiery kick to Rei's stomach. With Rei stunned with pain, Ikki drove his elbow into the back of Rei's head and watched her crash at his feet. "She really has you fooled, doesn't she? You think just because she's all motherly now, she won't become that monster later? A long time ago, I was an idealist like her, but darkness catches up with everyone…"

Ikki pulled on Rei's long dark hair and lifted her back onto her feet, waiting for her to open her wincing eyes before continuing and giving her another of those chilling glares. "Make no mistake: that woman is evil, and unchecked she can destroy the world. She might not realize it yet, but give her the right push and you'll see the destroyer that exists in us all. That's why I'll do as a stranger what you can't do as a friend. I will protect the universe...I will destroy-eh?"

Rei lifted her hand and planted something on Ikki's forehead: a paper talisman that hung down his face and confused him enough to let go of Rei and narrow his eyes to look at the piece of paper. "This is a...piece of paper? You dare mock me!?"

"ARUKYO TAI SAN!"

"AGH," Ikki roared in pain as the talisman exploded in a burst of power that sent him stumbling backwards in a blind daze. Seeing her opportunity to attack, Rei took to the air and flipped forward to drive the heel of her flaming shoe onto the top of Ikki's head to send him face-first into the ground. Rei made sure to keep her shoe planted on his head as she stood over him and pointed an accusing finger at her.

"Anyone who puts their hands on Usagi answers to me! Fate is what we make of it, and anyone who thinks that their destiny is predetermined by anyone but themselves is a weak-minded fool that doesn't deserve to waste our time!"

"Weak...you dare call me weak!?" Ikki growled as his aura reached an intensity rivaling that of a volcano. With a mighty roar, Ikki threw Rei off of him and grabbed onto her leg, pulling forward and causing her to fall on her back. Then, with a mighty hammer throw, Ikki hurled Rei high into the air and unleashed a blast of flame to strike her in the air. "See how weak I am! PHOENIX SHELL CRACKER!"

Rei saw the blast coming and muttered a quick incantation before summoning protection: a circle of nine fiery kanji that created a shield around her and allowed her to fall to the ground safely before preparing a counter-attack. "Phoenix Saint," Rei said with a low hiss as her entire body became engulfed in her fiery spirit energy, "I will lay everything on the line to stop you from hurting my friends! Do you think you can handle my resolve!?"

"I could ask you the same question, Sailor Mars," Ikki shot back as he focused his own cosmo into his entire body. "This is your last warning! Step aside, or share Sailor Moon's fate!"

Summoning their avatars of fire, Rei and Ikki unleashed their most devastating techniques and again made their battlefield hotter than Hell itself.

"MARS SOUL BIRD!"

"PHOENIX HOYOKU TENSHO!"

Two massive birds of flame erupted from each warrior, and soared headlong into each other as they clashed mightily. But escaping their attention was Pegasus Seiya and Sailor Moon running to their sides, hoping to break up the conflicts. While the others had been fighting amongst themselves, their supposed leaders could only watch the madness unfold and struggle to come up with answers on how things spiraled into a brawl and what they could do to stop it. Their solution was to confront the two that started it all and try and bring them back to reality.

" _Protect the Princess. Destroy-"_

"GAH," Sailor Moon quickly jumped away from Rei as she felt that terrible meme attempt to enter her head. If she had been an instant slower to jump away, she would have heard the entire transmission and possibly gone right after Seiya if the reactions of the others was any preview of what happened when someone heard it. "Rei-chan, what's going on! You're not supposed to throw out that move on a human!"

" _Protect the universe. Des-"_

Pegasus Seiya placed his hand on Ikki's shoulder and was about to say something, but the sudden shock of the meme fueling his rage caused him to quickly back off. As he did so, he saw Sailor Moon running to a clear spot and joined up with her. When Sailor Moon reluctantly resumed a fighting stance as he came closer, Seiya was worried that she too had gone nuts, but saw the look in her eyes and realized she was just concerned that he might have done the same. Once it became clear that they were still in their right mind, they tried to figure out what was going on.

"You heard it, right? You saw what they're seeing?" Usagi asked desperately.

"Yeah. As soon as I touched Ikki, a whole bunch of images started flashing in my head. The others held onto them longer than we did, so they must have went crazy because the process was longer," Seiya nodded his head before asking a question of his own. "Who's Galaxia?"

"Ummm...I'll tell you later," Sailor Moon said nervously as the two of them looked around and realized things were getting worse.

* * *

Hyoga swatted away the sapphire blast of energy and gave a quizzical look at his opponent dancing with what looked to be a star-shaped plastic tambourine. With every step and pat of the instrument, another burst of energy came at Hyoga, but they didn't feel any more or less painful than a swift swat on his wrist. "If you want to pierce a Cloth of Athena, you're going to need to be using something a lot stronger than a toy instrument," Hyoga said before clasping his fists together and unleashing his own burst of energy: a blast of cold cosmo that froze enemies in their tracks. "Let me show you the kind of power you need to be bringing to this fight! AURORA THUNDER ATTACK!"

The blast of cold cosmo broke the air like a cannon shot, easily drowning out the tunes of the tambourine, but Ami gracefully spun out of the way of the attack and fired an ice blast of her own: her Mercury Aqua Blizzard. Unlike the Cygnus Saint's concussive blasts of cold air, Sailor Mercury's attack was an overwhelming stream of freezing power that forced Hyoga to put his arms up in a block lest he be blown away, or have shards of ice from the frozen air be jammed into his face. Getting down onto one knee to brace himself, Hyoga ignored the blinding effects of the blizzard attack and instead focused on locking onto Ami's unique cosmo and targeting her from there.

"There you are! DIAMOND DUST!"

Once he had an idea of where she was coming from, Hyoga turned to his right and unleashed his own blizzard of wrath, instantly encasing Ami in ice. Unlike Sailor Mercury who drew her power from water, the Cygnus Saint had unlocked the ability to freeze the atoms of his targets without needing water to build a base from. Mastery of Absolute Zero was the hallmark of his master's teachings, and it's what gave Hyoga the edge over his current adversary. But even though Sailor Mercury had been beaten, the blizzard she summoned had not subsided. A couple of seconds later, Hyoga learned why.

The statue that was supposed to be an incapacitated Ami suddenly exploded in a burst of icy shards that were launched Hyoga with lethal intentions. Sharp blades of frozen water cut into Hyoga's exposed face, forcing him to once again throw his hands up in a block unless he wanted pieces to get into his orifices. "I knew what you wanted to do," Ami said from behind Hyoga, waiting for him to turn around before driving her foot into his chin with a snapping kick that launched him skyward. "I think you top players call it 'a mix-up.'"

Hyoga flipped in mid-air and landed on his hands, but was surprised to realize that the ground beneath them had lost all friction. By unleashing their freezing attacks against one another, the two warriors had encased the pavement underneath them in a thick sheet of ice, and was made quite slippery thanks to Ami's control over water mixing with the ice. Rapidly moving his hands across the black ice, Hyoga summoned his cosmo and made the ground around him dry so that he could return to an upright position.

By keeping his body's cosmo at its maximum, Hyoga was able to anticipate Ami skating towards him with a mass of watery energy forming in her hands for the knockout blow, and catch Ami's fist as she attempted to deliver it. Upon making contact with Hyoga, Ami's eyes widened when she realized that her hand was freezing, and it was rapidly spreading to the rest of her body. "I guess that's what it has to boil down to, doesn't it?" Hyoga mused as Ami struggled to break his strong, icy grip. "If it's a mirror match, it comes down to who's the best player. Too bad you're still splashing around when I've mastered the concept of freezing molecules themselves!"

Realizing she was in trouble, Ami lifted her tambourine and struck Hyoga in the side of the head with it as hard as she could, forcing him to let go of her arm and allowing her to slide backwards to inspect where she had been grabbed. Thankfully she broke the grip before her arm went entirely numb, and she realized that if she wanted to defeat Hyoga, she too would have to hold nothing back. "Mercury," Ami whispered as the jewel in her tambourine flashed rapidly, "lend me your power!"

"I feel bad for you, doctor, I really do," Hyoga said with a smirk as he watched Ami gracefully dance with the glowing instrument. "I'm wearing the Cygnus Cloth, battle tested for many generations, and you're running around in a fuku trying to hurt me with plastic toys. It doesn't seem...fair...oh, no."

Hyoga's voice trailed off as the glowing tambourine completed its transformation from a "plastic toy" into a sharp sapphire scimitar, and he immediately recognized the implications that came with it. Wielding the sword as efficiently as she could, Ami skated towards Hyoga and forced him on the defensive. So surprised was Hyoga by the sudden attack that he temporarily lowered his cosmo to better focus on evading the slashes, and soon found himself slipping on the ice. "Maybe splashing around isn't so bad," Ami said with a grin as Hyoga struggled to stay upright while dodging her slashes. "I feel bad that you never learned how to ice-skate. It's a good hobby to have in the winter time, and very romantic!"

"I...I'm more of a skier, to be honest," Hyoga sputtered out as he felt his legs slide in opposite directions, forcing him into a splits. Even with the flexibility training he received while training as a soldier of Athena, he definitely felt the strain between his legs as he lifted his hands and caught the falling blade of Sailor Mercury between his palms. Pushing the blade to the side, Hyoga unleashed a blast of cosmo that sent Ami sliding backwards so that he could gingerly get back onto his feet and start using the terrain to his advantage. "But you should know that we Saints are very fast learners!"

With a forward oomph, Hyoga sped towards Ami with a fast slide, ramming his shoulder into her to send her careening across the frozen pavement before skidding to a halt by focusing his cosmo. But then he realized that Ami was again playing with him: she too stood up with absolutely no difficulty by chilling her boots to such a degree that the wet ice beneath her became dry. Rather than feel offended, Hyoga allowed himself a smile. "If I didn't know any better, doctor, I'd say you're flirting with me."

"I'm already involved with someone, but you're quite handsome, anyway," Ami replied as her blade glowed with power. "You must be quite popular with the girls. You should take my tips on using ice skating as a date!"

"Then please, doctor, show me your best moves! AURORA THUNDER ATTACK!"

"MERCURY AQUA STORM!"

* * *

When Shun first met Minako the week before, he expected her personality to be identical to the one she portrayed on television.

Ever since she first came onto the music scene as a teen idol, Minako Aino had captivated the country with her warm smiles and friendly songs. Even her maturation into an adult and change in expectations that came along with it did not greatly alter the perception the media had of her. Yes, her songs and her outfits on stage evoked thoughts of a more mature love than the ones she sang about in her school days, but it was overall the same Minako that everyone fell in love with.

Now that he knew that Shun was Sailor Venus, he was getting a glimpse of the true Minako, and quite frankly it frightened him terribly.

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

"NEBULA CHAIN!"

Unleashing their respective chain weapons against one another, Sailor Venus and the Andromeda Saints bound themselves to each other by wrapping their chains around the opponent's free hand. Realizing what had happened, Shun summoned his pink cosmo and sent in through his chain like a funnel: the technique he had dubbed his "Nebula Wave." Either not realizing what was about to happen or simply not expecting it to hurt her, Minako allowed herself to be attacked by the wave of cosmo and winced as it surged through her body.

"Not even a scream," Shun mumbled as he tugged on Minako's chain and pulled it towards him, causing her to stumble forwards. "Even the Silver Saints that try and hurt us make a reaction with I use that move on them. You're incredible, Minako Aino!"

Minako did not immediately respond save for a cruel glare that sent a wave of fear down Shun's spine. While Shun detested violence and would have preferred not to fight if he didn't have to, Minako seemed more than willing to escalate her battles to make it clear that someone was going to get hurt. When Shun pulled on her once more, Minako instead rushed towards the pink-clad warrior with a rapid pace. Shocked by the sudden burst of aggression, Shun temporarily froze and allowed himself to be struck by a running punt to his chin.

"SAILOR V KICK!"

Launched into the air like a football, Shun was sent rocketing towards the heavens as far as the two chains attached to his body could take him. Once the chains had reached their limit, Shun's ascent was brought to an abrupt halt as he then plummeted back towards Sailor Venus, who greeted him with a drop kick sent him screeching around the ground before coming to a stop thanks to the chains reaching their limit. Now it was Minako leading him along, pulling on both her own chain and the one the Andromeda Saint wrapped around her arm.

Realizing he was in trouble if he allowed Minako to drag him across the ground, Shun rolled forward and then launched himself at his opponent with a flying cross chop, driving his body into her and sending her to the ground in a heap. Shun quickly returned to his feet and saw that Minako was doing the same, both of them still bound to each other. The two opponents quickly tugged at one another to try and break the hold, and when neither relented, they quickened their pace towards the staircase of the mall's front garden.

"NEBULA STREAM!"

Lifting his bound hand as best he could, Shun fired multiple bursts of pink cosmo from each of his fingertips, hoping that at least one of them would strike Minako. When none of them did, he continued firing off the Nebula Streams with the idea that at least one of them would hit. The Nebula Stream was an attack used to paralyze the victims upon contact, which tied into the Andromeda Saint's training of defeating an opponent through binding. Besides, if Minako was incapicated, Shun wouldn't have to worry about hurting her unnecessarily. Even with his mission, Shun hoped that they could still be friends.

Too bad for him, Minako wasn't looking to simply incapacitate Shun. She was looking to defeat him by any means necessary.

"CRESCENT BEAM!"

Minako only needed her index finger to unleash a piercing blast of yellow energy that Shun just barely moved his head out of the way from. The attack had grazed his cheek, and Shun's eyes widened with fright as he felt the unfriendly sensation of burning pain from the wound. If not for Shun's reflexes, that blast would have hit him right in his face, and likely go through his head: an instant kill. This wasn't the Minako Aino he had looked forward to working with. This was a Sailor Senshi looking to take his life for daring to threaten her princess.

As the two fighters finally reached the stairwell and started rapidly descending down it while firing their respective beams at one another, Shun wondered if perhaps this conflict escalated far too quickly for it to be a natural development.

Miraculously, the two reached the bottom of the stairwell without striking one another with their surefire victory attacks, and Shun ducked a final Crescent Beam before again using his Nebula Thunder Wave to shock Minako into submission. Remembering what would happen if he let up for an instant, Shun yanked on his Nebula Chain and the Love-Me Chain as hard he could, pulling Minako towards him before quickly wrapping both chains around her body. Finally, he had her ensnared: victory was close at hand.

"Please give up," Shun pleaded as Minako struggled madly. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"Then you're a fool," Minako hissed as she wriggled her right arm free and pointed her index finger straight into the air. "CRESCENT BEAM SHOWER!"

A single Crescent Beam was fired into the sky, but thousands more came raining down upon the battlefield seconds later. Not only was the hail of spirit energy enough for Shun to release his hold on Minako and run for cover, but it completely disrupted the other fights already in progress. The beams interrupted Makoto and Shiryu's martial arts showdown, and Ami and Hyoga quickly scrambled away as the bolts came down upon them in painful rain. But Rei and Ikki endured the shower as they remained focused on incinerating each other. The two birds of fire they summoned were now as wide and massive as skydiving parachutes, and grew bigger by the moment.

"Rei-chan," the other Sailor Senshi quickly ran to Rei's side in support. "Let us help-"

"STAY BACK," the raven-haired priestess screamed. "I'm using I have on this guy!"

"NO," the previously neutral Sailor Moon shouted as she placed her hand on Rei's, no longer caring about what would happen if she held on for too long and allowed that terrible meme to go through her head. Turning to Seiya was a few meters separated from the Senshi and Saints, Usagi's face became regretful as she apologized. "I'm sorry, Seiya...but this is getting out of control! I can't let my friends get hurt!"

"I...I understand, Usagi," Seiya nodded his head before running over to his comrades and standing by Ikki's side. "We have to do what we can to protect those we care about...even if it means someone else might not like it. Ikki, Hyoga, Shiryu, Shun...let's bring it together!"

"Minako-chan, Ami-chan, Rei-chan, Mako-chan...let's finish this!"

* * *

"They are going to destroy each other, Mu," Sailor Pluto's patience finally wore out.

"Yes, they're taking this way beyond a friendly contest. Something is very wrong," Mu's usually placid expression whittled away to show great concern for the younger warriors about to unleash their most devastating attacks on one another. "I'm going to stop this. If either of those attacks hit, it won't only spell the end for our mentees, the entire Saitama Mall will be in ruins and thousands will be hurt."

* * *

"SAILOR...PLANET…"

"GALAXIAN…"

* * *

"STARLIGHT EXTINCTION!"

* * *

"ATT-"

"EXPLO-"

A blinding flash of light engulfed the ten warriors, causing them to suddenly vanish, but the energies they summoned were launched just as they disappeared and rocketed towards each other. Recognizing the catastrophic consequences if the two supernovas of power were allowed to clash, Mu summoned a barrier of golden energy to separate the two attacks, but the collision into the Crystal Wall almost caused his senses to collapse. "UUUUUUGH! Strong...help me...doctor…"

"On it," Setsuna nodded her head before tapping her heart-shaped staff on the roof and causing the two balls of power to vanish. Mu fell forward and lowered his barrier as the strain on his body and mind was lifted, and a few seconds later a massive explosion ripped through the sky, causing the ground to shake and for windows to shatter as civilians cowered in fear. But to the good fortune of the people of Saitama, the shockwave subsided and the evening sky returned to normal.

"Thank you...doctor," Mu gasped as he wiped the sweat from his brow and assessed the situation. "I was able to teleport them to safety before the explosion. I think putting them in time-out for a bit will be good for everyone…"

"Yes...yes, I can sense their spirit energies now," Setsuna nodded her head. "But what's going to stop them from going back at one another once they get back together?"

"...I don't know," Mu said with a sigh. "The most we can do is hope that they're as mentally strong as we know they are, and realize that only together can we stand against our enemy."


	7. Act VII

With a moan, Usagi Chiba opened her eyes and saw that night had fallen since she was last conscious. For a brief moment, she wondered if the chaos that consumed her last waking moment was just a dream that faded upon her return to reality, but as she turned on her side she realized that it most likely wasn't. Her eyes widened and her senses became fully revitalized as she saw her friends strewn about the benches of what looked to be a small outdoor theater. On top of that, they weren't the only ones.

Not just the Sailor Senshi, but the five Bronze Saints were lying in heaps on the benches. Quickly getting back on her feet, Usagi hurried over to the closest person and jolted him awake by shaking him quickly. "Seiya," she called out his name as he let out a load groan and opened his eyes. "Are you alright, Seiya? Are you hurt?"

"N...no," Seiya shook his head as he sat up and looked around to see his friends. "Your friends pack a heck of a wallop. I thought for sure I was done for."

"The same goes for you," Usagi replied with a friendly smile before helping Seiya back on his feet. Once they were both fully upright, they looked around at the mass of bodies once more and fully remembered what had transpired the last time they were conscious. And once they did, they quickly jolted away from one another and assumed their fighting stances. "This isn't a trick, is it? You're not under Fiore's spell like last time?"

"I was only fighting because your friends were trying to kill mine, Usagi," Seiya retorted. Their eyes narrowed as they waited for their opposite to make a move, and when it became clear that their minds were back to their natural states, they loosened their stances and walked over to one another to shake hands. "But it looks like everything turned out okay. Let's go check on the others and figure out what happened."

Usagi and Seiya were about to jostle their friends, but once more they froze, this time for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that as their memories unfolded of what happened before waking up in the amphitheater, they remembered that their friends attacked each other due to putting their hands on Rei and Ikki in an attempt to break up their fight. When Seiya and Usagi made contact with their comrades, a psychic message attempted to breach their minds, telling them to kill each other. There was no guarantee that had passed now that the battle was over.

The second reason was that Seiya was sensing a handful of incredibly powerful cosmos rapidly approaching them. Two of the cosmos were individuals that he was intimately familiar with and put a great deal of trust in, but the other cosmo was completely alien to him, swirling with the broadest mix of intense emotions that he couldn't tell if it belonged to a friend or a foe. At any rate, he'd find out soon enough as that stranger suddenly appeared at the top of the awning of the amphitheater stage and let out a bellowing shout.

"VILLAIN!"

The figure launched himself from the roof and gracefully landed between Seiya and Usagi, his long white scarf fluttering in the wind as he touched down before falling down over his head. A string of incomprehensible babbling followed as the figure realized his majestic entrance had been foiled, and fumbled with the scarf until he finally straightened it out so that it was falling behind him. Once that was done, he straightened his short brown hair before turning to Seiya and pointing at him dramatically. "VILLAIN," he repeated before assuming an equally dramatic pose to match his dramatic pointing, "you took advantage of a hero's trust and used it to try and bring her to her knees! This is completely unforgivable!"

Seiya gave the posing man the once-over and confirmed that while he was the source of the unfamiliar strong cosmo, his brain might not have been in peak condition. He was clad entirely in white cloth: poofy white pants, a tight long-sleeved white hakama with a yellow crescent moon on the chest, white gloves, a white mask covering his mouth, and a long white scarf. He wasn't entirely sure if the costume was going for "ninja" or "Middle Eastern assassin," but his boisterous shouting and over-the-top posing didn't lend credibility to either of those theories. "And you are…who, exactly?"

"I am the light that cuts through the night! I am-"

"Mamoru!"

"EH!?" Seiya blurted out as Usagi ran to the white-clad stranger's side and placed her head on his shoulder while embracing him. "This guy is your husband? I thought everyone said that he was supposed to be the adult in the family!"

Usagi ignored Seiya's backhanded insult at her rambunctious tendencies and broke her embrace before standing between the interloper and his target. "Mamoru, he's a friend! We were fighting before, but everything's good now! You can put your sword away, Mam-"

"Sailor Moon," the warrior interrupted as he sheathed his blade, "I told you before, I am not your husband. I am only inhabiting his body until the evil empire has been smashed. Until that day comes, I am 'the Moonlight Knight!'" The Moonlight Knight suddenly jerked his arm upwards with such ferocity that Usagi jumped back in surprise, not wanting to get hit on the way up. Once he completed the clockwise revolution of his arm and jerked it back down to his side, the Moonlight Knight turned back to Seiya and nodded his head. "But, now that I focus on him, he lacks the violent intent he had at the Saitama Mall. Good to meet you, Pegasus Saint."

"Wait...you were watching all of that happen at the mall?" Usagi said with exasperation before groaning. "Mamoru, you could have helped us! Aren't you supposed to show up when we need you the most so that we can prepare our finishing move to beat the bad guys!?"

"I-I-I was about to, but you were already using your hissatsu waza so I thought you had things under control," Moonlight Knight sputtered out before looking around to see the other Senshi and Saints slowly waking up. Realizing it was an opportunity to shift the blame, Moonlight Knight turned his back in dramatic fashion. "Sailor Moon, Pegasus Saint, go and tend to your friends. There is much we have to discuss before we can initiate Super Hero Time."

Seiya blinked and wondered if the Moonlight Knight said what he thought he just said. "Did you just say 'Super Hero Time?'"

"Yes," Moonlight Knight nodded his head enthusiastically. "In times of great crisis, where evil empires join hands in unholy alliances to wreak their wrath on love, justice, and honor, the forces of good must also bind themselves in friendship. Together we are strong, and together we will smite the villains in a flash of poses, explosions, and background music sang by established artists to later be realized in best-selling singles!"

"...are you on drugs, man?" Seiya finally asked the million-yen question that had been burning since he first laid eyes on the Moonlight Knight.

"What? No!"

"Maybe you ought to be…"

"Seiya!"

Seiya turned around at the sound of more familiar and considerably more sane voices and saw a masked figure that was a much more pleasant sight than weirdos in white who watched way too much television. While her black leotard and red stockings underneath silver bikini armor wasn't much of an improved fashion statement over Moonlight Knight, the red-haired woman's voice was far gentler and friendlier. "Marin-san," Seiya exclaimed as he hopped over the benches to reach his former teacher at the stop of the amphitheater seats.

Although Marin was only a couple of years older than Seiya, she had been a Saint much longer than him and as such was entrusted with his training when the Kido family first brought him to Sanctuary to fulfill his destiny as a Bronze Saint. While the training was extreme and pushed Seiya to the very brink of human limits, Marin made sure to treat him with kindness so that he could continue pushing forward until he finally won the Pegasus Cloth in his final test. But there was another, more private reason Seiya admired Marin so much.

He had suspicions that Marin was secretly his long-lost older sister. Prior to being adopted by the Kido family along with his rival Jabu, Seiya and his older sister were incredibly close at the orphanage they lived in. Seiya had hoped that once he finished his training as a Saint, he could return to the orphanage and find his older sister, but she had been missing for several years. He was a firm believer in the idea that nothing was random and everything happened for a reason. Therefore, he avoided pressing the issue to Marin, believing that when the time was right, she would confirm his suspicions.

For now, Marin had proven her trustworthiness to Seiya and the other Bronze Saints by aiding them in times of great crisis, and then disappearing into the background until it was time to re-emerge again. If Marin was coming to Seiya, it probably wasn't because she wanted to make pleasantries, but Seiya was happy to see her regardless. After giving her a big hug that she returned with slight reluctance, Seiya turned back to his friends stirring and was about to go help them, but Marin placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Seiya, keep your distance," Marin said sternly as she watched Moonlight Knight hold back Usagi from doing the same to her comrades. "They've been infected a psychic virus. If you touch them, you'll succumb to it and try and hurt your new friends."

"Indeed," Moonlight Knight added as stayed on guard as the Saints sat up and groaned while their opposites in the Senshi did the same. "I had thought that the Pegasus Saint was infected when he woke up since he tried to hurt Sailor Moon, but now I realize he was only doing what any good comrade would do when torn between doing what is right in his heart and what is right in the mind. For that, I apologize, Sailor Moon."

"Not you again…"

Turning around to see Rei stirring, the Moonlight Knight's posture became aggressive once more and started to chastise the raven-haired priestess as she stood up. "Sailor Mars, as a Red Warrior of legend you should know better than to instigate a conflict with other heroes! Thanks to you, Super Hero Time was put in jeopardy and all of our adventures would have been pre-empted! My role is strictly to be the sixth hero who appears when needed most and then fade so that the main cast can continue to develop!"

"But, you just said that they were under mind control and couldn't help it. And wouldn't Sailor Pluto be the sixth hero?"

"Ignore him, Usagi," Rei groaned as she pushed the Moonlight Knight aside, "if you try to make sense of what he says, you'll just give yourself a headache you don't-"

"AAAAAAGH!"

Rei and Usagi jumped back in startled surprise as Moonlight Knight let out an agonized roar. Even though Usagi and Seiya figured out that the psychic virus required prolonged contact with a victim for it to take effect, Moonlight Knight clearly had an idea that even the slightest touch would result in a maddened state where he could pose a great danger to the woman he swore to protect and her friends that meant the world to her. Therefore, he quickly took flight with a great leap and landed on the amphitheater stage. Concerned for the man who accompanied her to the amphitheater, Marin called out to Moonlight Knight. "Are you OK, Moonlight Knight? What is your mind telling you right now?"

"Forgive me, Sailor Moon, Eagle Saint...I became careless," he said with regret, lowering his head as he gripped where Rei slightly brushed into him. "Even now, I can feel the temptation of rage gnawing at my psyche...I fear that in a few seconds, I will be lost in the grip of a great fury and pose a danger to those I care about." Turning to Usagi with a tear in his eye, the Moonlight Knight slowly reached out to her as she made her way to the stage to become closer to her. "Sailor Moon...it will soon be up to you. Save your friends...unite everyone for...Super...Her-"

"'Protect the Princess, destroy the Bronze Saints,'" Usagi interrupted as she looked into Moonlight Knight's eyes. "Are you hearing those words?"

"...no?"

"Then you're OK," Usagi said with a comforting smile as she helped the Moonlight Knight off the stage and led them back to the the rest of their friends. In the Sailor Senshi's previous adventures against the Dark Kingdom, Mamoru Chiba fought alongside Sailor Moon even before the other Senshi awakened their powers. He first won Sailor Moon's heart as the mysterious Tuxedo Mask, and would eventually realize his own legacy as the Guardian of Earth, Prince Endymion. When the war ended, Mamoru also had his memories erased so that he and Usagi could live their lives in peace as a happy couple.

But when Gesen first appeared to take the lives of the Chiba family while they were out shopping, Mamoru went missing in the confusion. Usagi wouldn't have to worry for too long, as he quickly reappeared with yet another identity to smite evil with: the Moonlight Knight. What separated this identity from the others was that Mamoru had apparently lost all memories of his civilian life, and so the Moonlight Knight was his only persona regardless of any evildoers being present. Usagi had tried a few times to reach out to him so that he could remember who he was, and with Chibiusa she had physical proof of the love they took vows to share forever. But Moonlight Knight would tell her the same thing each time, "Until the evil empire has fallen, Mamoru Chiba cannot return. The Moonlight Knight has a mission, and the happy ending will not happen until the final battle!"

The other Senshi, especially Rei, found the Moonlight Knight incredibly obnoxious and extremely selfish to show awareness of his "host's" marriage to Usagi yet make no attempts to return to her unless they were in battle. Yet Usagi was always quick to defend his actions, saying that Mamoru likely had a very good reason for acting as eccentric as he'd act when he'd come onto the stage and help the Senshi in their times of crisis. If he said that he'd come back to her as soon as the enemy was extinguished, that that would be good enough for her.

In the midst of all of the commotion, and her efforts to fight the urge to slap Moonlight Knight so hard that the struck cheek would bounce off against the one on the opposite side of his head, Rei ignored the unknown woman approaching her until she put her hand on her cheek. Quickly darting around to see who was touching her without permission, Rei suddenly felt her anger subside to her more natural calm state, and her hardened expression loosened as the strain on her mind and soul was quelled. Even when being made consciously aware of the anti-Saint meme that ran through her head, it was still incredibly difficult to ignore until this young lady touched her.

Rei looked at the teenage girl and immediately took note of her long purple hair. She had been to Akibahara more than enough times to know what a dye job looked like, but the pigmentation in her hair seemed natural as it lacked the subtle differences between dyed hair and natural colors, very similar to how the other Senshi would change their hairstyles and hair color when they transformed. She didn't recognize the school uniform she was wearing, but assumed she must have been pretty well-off to smell as clean as she did. Furthermore, the spirit energy she possessed was hauntingly familiar: it had the same cleansing scent as Usagi when she would lose control of her power and-

"Rei-chan," Ami called out to her fire-wielding friend as she and the other Saints and Senshi mingled with one another with apologetic awkwardness. "Just like we have a Princess we have to protect, the other Saints have someone they need to protect, too."

"Sorry I couldn't meet with you sooner," Saori bowed her head in forgiveness as Eagle Marin walked down from the stairwell and stood on the bench over them. "Mr. Zeto has been keeping me hidden for the past couple of months now that Sanctuary has made a base in Japan to look for me. But...there was only so much I could do just watching from afar. People were laying their lives on the line for me, I couldn't just stand by and not do something about it. That's why I got in touch with Marin, who brought me to Moonlight Knight and then we found all of you here."

Seeing the confused look on Rei's face, Ami stepped forward and formally introduced the teenager. "This is Saori Kido, the current incarnation of Athena. She lifted that brainwashing meme that made us all fight each other, so now we can get back to having that big get-together we were supposed to have before-"

"The Golem attack," Rei interjected, pointing to a cut on her leg that she received in the park. "Ikki was cut by some zombies that acted a lot like the Golems, and then the Golems attacked me to keep me distracted so that Fiore could put his spell on him. The cut that Golem gave me must have given me a similar curse that I spread onto you." With a sigh, Rei sat down and realized that she was the cause of them almost killing each other. "I screwed up. I should be better than that…"

"Don't blame yourself," Ikki said as he stood on the bench over Rei's head and kneeled down. With a slight smirk a thumbs-up, the Phoenix Saint gave his Senshi rival a rare sign of respect. "We're warriors of fire, so we're afraid our friends will get burned if we get too close, and they did. It just comes with the territory of being us. Besides, no one ever pushed me as hard as you did in that fight...and that is saying a lot. We should do it again sometime…"

"...I wasn't trying to have fun," Rei said with a hint of disgust before standing up and walking to another part of the amphitheater. "I was trying to destroy you…"

"...hmph," Ikki scoffed as his expression turned to a scowl. "Don't worry...so was I…"

" _Don't worry...so was I…"_

"Yeah, but too bad you were all hype," Gesen muttered as he watched the hologram being projected through the core on his suit's chest. "If you weren't teleported out of harm's way, Sailor Mars would have made sure you wouldn't be rising from the ashes anytime soon."

"Don't be so quick underestimate the training of a Saint, even if it's from a rebel like the Phoenix," Shaina added as she walked from the kitchen and brought a bottle of wine to place in the living room that Gesen was lounging in. "If he really wanted to push himself, he would have incinerated your beloved Sailor Mars. That's why I recommended that he be the carrier for your master's psychic attack."

"And Master Fiore only agreed to make him the carrier because he had the foulest temper, which is why I recommended that the Golem Troopers put his empathy spores in Sailor Mars so that your Pope could play his part since she was the most likely to return the favor," Gesen retorted before reaching for the bottle and popping the cork open. Seeing the glass in Shaina's hand, he motioned for her to come closer and then carefully poured the wine in the class before setting it back down on the coffee table. "The bottle reads 1867...are you sure this stuff is safe to drink?"

"The Bacchus make good wine. I trust anything that has their name on it regardless of what year is on the bottle," Shaina said before turning away from Gesen so that she could slightly lift up her mask and take a drink of her wine. "Aaah...forgive me I seem rude. Female Saints have a code that no man should ever see our face."

"...except for the Pegasus Saint, right?"

The trigger was pulled, and Shaina went from elegant woman in an expensive penthouse to the bloodthirsty Amazon that made her so feared in the ranks of Sanctuary. Baring her claws with her free hand, Shaina lunged at Gesen's face and stopped mere inches away, her hand crackling with violet electricity. "Be careful what you say in my home, Gesen," she said sternly before pulling away. "You're a guest, and there's nothing in our alliance that says I can't rough you up a bit."

"I'm a robot," Gesen said bluntly. "Do you think I care if you scratch me up? Unlike you humans-"

"Don't lie, Gesen," Shaina interjected before going back to her bottle of wine and pouring another glass. "You're no less human than I am. Machines don't have cosmo, but you do. Like me, you wear a mask because you have a code that demands that your true face must be hidden...and I bet you have a similar penalty for those who see your face."

"...the consequences for my true identity being known are a lot more dire than if anyone saw your face," Gesen said before turning to look at Shaina with his deep red eyes. "The sensors in my helmet give me a general idea of what you look like underneath the mask, but it's not a face I recognize so there's no point in us dwelling on it. But being I come from the future...somewhere out there, there's a younger me still naive the horrors Usagi is going to put us through. If the Senshi found out who I was underneath the suit, they could target me just like I target them."

"Usagi...Sailor Moon?" Shaina remembered that the vixen who was Seiya's opposite on the Inner Senshi was called Usagi when she wasn't blonde and wearing a fuku. "You sound as if you know her personally. It takes a special kind of person to kill someone close to them, especially if they don't realize that special someone is the one who brings them to the gates of the underworld. Do you think you can handle that?"

"...do you, Shaina?"

Shaina's body tensed uncomfortably as she put her glass down and looked to one of the several pictures she had of Seiya sitting framed on her counter. "Seiya and I...were once very close. You could say that we were childhood sweethearts when we trained together in Sanctuary...but when he broke my mask when I tried to bring him back, he took everything that mattered to me as a warrior! My pride, my honor...my heart! If a man sees a female Saint's face, she has only two choices: to kill him, or to love him….and to love him means defying our sacred Pope who will finally put an end to the cycle of the Holy Wars!"

Her voice cracked as she trembled, her claws digging in her palms as she clenched her fist. "That is why I will take my heart back from him...that is why I'll take his heart and crush it in the palm of my hand! Only his death will win back my honor...only his death will redeem my damned soul that lusts for him!"

"Take it from someone who has already lost everything to someone he cares about," Gesen retorted unsympathetically, "taking back your honor won't make the pain go away. I've thought about what I'm going to do to Usagi every time Fiore sends me on a mission, and there is no scenario where I'll walk away from her corpse feeling good about myself. Fiore even offered to strip me of my human soul so that I wouldn't have to suffer when we defeat the Sailor Senshi...but I know that even though taking her life is a right thing, it won't save me from being damned. Damnation is inevitable to people like us."

"Then...then I am stronger than you, Gesen," Shaina stood up from the couch and looked down upon her ally with disdain. "I will delight in murdering Seiya! I will run the streets red with his blood!"

"And then you will be damned, because you brutally murdered the person you care about in the name of duty," Gesen stood up and folded his arms. "Like I said, damnation is inevitable. It's a sacrifice we choose to make as generals to our masters. So the most we can look forward to is-"

"Wait."

"You need to hear this, Shaina."

"No, it's not about that," Shaina turned to the image still being projected from Gesen's core. Placing her hand on Gesen's shoulder, she leaned in closer so that she could get a better view. "The girl talking to them...that's Athena! She's finally come out of hiding!"

"So that's Saori Kido? Master Fiore requested that we capture her alive if we came across her," Gesen said as he ended the transmission and returned his core to its natural state. "Phase 1 of the plan was to have the Saints and the Senshi tire each other out, and then we'd pick off whoever was left for Phase 2. Since all of them survived, we better head out before they get enough rest to recuperate."

"I'll contact Deathmask. Tell your two lady friends Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune that it's time to move out," Shaina said as she headed for the door. "If we hurry, we can-..."

"What is it?"

"...we need to hurry," Shaina hissed as she pulled out a small device from behind the framed picture of Seiya she was looking at earlier. Worse, the pea-shaped receiver had a very tiny "Zamir" logo on its side. "It seems the Aries Saint has been eavesdropping on us...it's going to be a very busy night executing our enemies, Gesen…"

"Then I suppose we'll both be damned before dawn," Gesen rumbled with a metallic tinge. "Tonight we'll send the Inner Senshi and the Bronze Saints to Heaven, so that we can celebrate their demise in Hell!"


	8. Act VIII

"Guilty!"

"AAAGH!"

"Guilty!"

"AIIIIIIE!"

"Gui-nah, you're cool. Guilty!"

When the Cancer Saint was first offered the assignment of assisting Ophiuchus Shaina's campaign to find Athena and establish a base of operations in Japan for Sanctuary, his first reaction was indifference. As a Gold Saint he was given a great deal of authority over the organization and the idea of taking orders from a Silver Saint beneath him in cosmo, rank, and experience wasn't one that he could see himself doing. He was about to dismiss it until the Pope gave him a reason to take it.

If Deathmask went to Japan where the Pope's awareness wasn't as omnipresent as it was within Sanctuary's headquarters, Deathmask could engage in all of the debauchery and sin he wanted and the Pope would be none the wiser to it. Given the tremendous freedom bestowed on Deathmask already thanks to him being the Pope's co-conspirator in seizing the title, Deathmask understood what his purpose in the mission would be. Shaina would be the strategist who dealt with the finer nuances of the mission such as finding Athena, while Deathmask would be the field general expected to execute the plan...and anyone else who happened to be in the way.

As soon as Shaina gave him clearance to "lure out the Bronze Saints," Deathmask stopped carrying the shopping bags of Michiru and Haruka and brutally murdered anyone foolish enough to be nearby, and his rampage had brought him to the heart of the Shinjuku shopping district just as the sun had fully set and the stars began to appear in the night sky. Shaina often gave him a very tight leash in fear that he would disrupt her machinations with her recklessness, but now it seemed like Shaina finally understood the weapon the Pope gave her.

Deathmask wasn't a dog that needed to be tamed, but a foolproof weapon of mass destruction that once detonated could subjugate anyone and everyone Sanctuary deemed an enemy. Technically, anyone who was a non-believer of Athena was an enemy, so that meant Deathmask was fully within his line of duty to send anyone he saw to their fate in the underworld. To that end, he was currently in the process of declining the general population using his surefire killing techniques.

As he continued firing off bursts of sapphire cosmo to immolate those who were too slow to flee when they had the chance while cutting down the morons who stood too close to him using a pincer blade of pink cosmo on his wrist, Deathmask turned to Michiru and Haruka who only sat at a nearby restaurant finishing their dinner while everyone else around them flew into a panic. "Hey girls, come join in on the fun! You afraid you might like it?"

"Outer Senshi have a mission to protect the Earth from major threats," Haruka shot back before biting into her sandwich. "You're lucky that we're turning a blind eye to what you're doing for the sake of the greater good. If we weren't in an alliance we'd be putting a stop to all this!"

"Hey, you don't have to be like that. We have the same mission," Deathmask replied as he grabbed onto a police officer that tried to sneak up on him and lifted him into the air. "See this guy right here? He also claims to be a defender of peace, but he's just following the laws made by people who made them so it could serve their own purposes. That's not real justice, so now he's going to the underworld wondering what he did wrong."

"GAAAAaaahh…"

The officer's maddened shrieks faded in death and Deathmask choked the life out of him before setting him ablaze and tossing him in the direction of Haruka and Michiru. "The kind of justice we serve is true justice. As long as humanity's legacy is safe, then we're within our rights to do anything we see fit to keep the peace. I might be racking up the body count right now, but you and I both know that a month from now everything will be back to normal. This is a necessary evil, y'know?"

"Ah," Michiru winced as she backed off from the burning corpse that brushed up against her stocking, setting it ablaze before she quenched the flame with her water-manipulation abilities. "Watch where you're throwing your trash, Deathmask. That almost left a mark."

"Didn't we tell you…"

Haruka's expression hardened as she slowly stood up as put her sandwich to the side. Lifting her wrist to brandish her morpher, Haruka became engulfed into a golden aura of energy before seconds later emerging as Sailor Uranus, the guardian of sky and one of the immensely powerful Outer Senshi. "...what would happen if you hurt Michiru!"

Vaunting towards the gold-clad Deathmask with her fist crackling with power, Uranus punched Deathmask in the jaw with such monumental force that the gust of wind emerging from the point of impact and toppled the nearby civilians who were trying to get away. "OUCH," Deathmask exclaimed as he lifted his hand and delivered a backhanded swat to Sailor Uranus' cheek, sending her sliding across the ground before she skid to a halt and raised her fighting stance. "Hey, Michiru, tell your girlfriend to lighten up! It was an accident, right?"

"You…"

Michiru soon followed suit as she flashed her morpher and transformed into Sailor Neptune, the guardian of the depths, and hopped over the burning body with her first sparkling with watery power. Unleashing the water in a stream powerful enough to carve marks into concrete, Neptune blasted Deathmask in the face and caused him to stumble over while she continued her aquatic attack. "NEVER put hands on Haruka! Do you have a death wish?"

"I...told you," Deathmask blubbered through the water blasting in his face before firing a stream of blue flame from his finger that forced Sailor Neptune to jump back. "It's not DeathWISH. It's DeathMASK! It's not a hard thing to-ack!"

Seeing her opportunity, Haruka wrapped her arms around Deathmask's head and placed him in a choke sleeper. In a situation that the two found themselves in many times in the past when some moron would try and hit on either of them at the bar, Michiru then ran up to the struggling Deathmask and gave him a swift punt between his legs. Even with his golden armor forged with the finest metals Olympus had to offer, the kick reverberated throughout his shell and the loquacious Deathmask was left silent as he knelt down and took sharp breaths while Uranus and Neptune let him fall to his knees.

"It serves you right, pig."

A calm male voice with the slightest tinge of anger called out to Deathmask as he grit his teeth, causing the feuding trio to turn northward to see the well-dressed figures of Mu and Setsuna standing with their fists clenched. "Well, look who decided to show up," Deathmask grunted as he stood up next to the two women that attempted to castrate him seconds before. "I figure you'd be too busy going over your stock reports, traitor!"

"Business hours concluded a while ago, and several of my employees come here to unwind after a busy day. Now I'm going to have to issue apologies to the families of those employees that you randomly killed," Mu retorted as he and Setsuna brandished their morphers. "Two against three won't be easy, but we have justice on our side. There's no way you'll-"

"Justice is completely dependent on who's making the laws, Aries," Deathmask retorted. "Since the Pope is right now in charge, he's the one who makes the rules and decides who's on the side of justice and who's the side of outlaws. And as far as we're concerned, you two are the outlaws for interfering in our mission to bring peace to this world!"

"For once, he's making sense," Haruka added before pointing at Setsuna. "You can see into the future, Setsuna: you know why Michiru and I are doing what we're doing. By opposing us, you're dragging all of this out longer than it has to be and violating our mission as Outer Senshi!"

"Our mission is to prevent the Princess from falling into darkness, and protecting the Earth from foreign threats. By turning against her and siding with Fiore, you violate both those missions," Setsuna shot back as she and Mu lifted up their morphers and prepared for battle. "It'll be my pleasure to deal with traitors like-"

THOOM!

A massive explosion ripped through the area behind the two heroes, causing them to be sent flying through the air like thistles in the wind before crashing down to nearby patio tables in a heap. With a groan, the duo opened their eyes and saw the two menacing figures of Shaina and Gesen standing at what would have been their rears, with the turret mounted on Gesen's cybernetic arm still freshly smoking from the energy blast he unleashed. "G...Gesen," Setsuna hissed as Mu helped her to her feet, though he wasn't exactly in much shape to help either given the awkward way he landed. "This is...Outer Senshi business! Don't interfere!"

"Anything that involves the Senshi is my business, Pluto," Gesen remarked as the five warriors slowly approached Mu and Setsuna, herding around them like wolves about to finally tear apart their prey so that it could be shared with the pack. "Besides, you deserve it if you're arrogant enough to think you could take us all on by your lonesome."

"No! They're not alone!"

The convergence of powerful warriors had assembled so quickly that the seven of them didn't realize that several more were on their way to Shinjuku, more than likely drawn there by the commotion Deathmask caused to lure them out. While Mu might have claimed Deathmask's rampage to be wanton, unprovoked killing, he was still a professional who knew how to follow orders. Shaina had requested he cause a ruckus not so that he could satisfy his bloodlust, but so he could lure out the Inner Senshi and Bronze Saints for a final confrontation.

Running down the street from the west were the five Inner Senshi and five Bronze Saints, as well as the enigmatic Moonlight Knight and rebellious Eagle Saint, coming to the aid of their two comrades who had rescued them so many times in the past. Coming to a stop at the intersection where the confrontation was taking place, the dozen warriors waited for Setsuna and Mu to stand beside them before slowly parting to reveal another person of great importance.

"Saori Kido," Shaina said softly before pointing at her in accusation. "Saori Kido, you disgrace your legacy as our Sacred Goddess Athena by manipulating your Bronze Saints to serve your Earthly machinations! If you were truly our savior, you would realize that your duty is at your house in Sanctuary rather than the mortal cities of Tokyo."

"My purpose is to protect humanity, and all I've seen Sanctuary do since I came into this world is destroy lives. By serving that madman you call the Pope, you're the traitor, Shaina," Saori shot back before turning to Mu. "Mr. Zeto, I'm sorry that I disobeyed your request to stay hidden. There was only so much I could take watching Seiya and the others risk their lives for me."

"...as long as you're safe, Ms. Kido, that's all I'm concerned about. The reason we fight on your behalf is so one day we don't have to call you 'Athena' and we can live our lives peacefully without being boggled down by legacies," Mu said with a warm smile before his expression hardened. "There's a police barricade a couple of blocks north. Go to it and find a safe place to hide until we take care of business. I'll contact you through the usual means."

"Like I'll let you get away," Shaina said as she crouched down and took to the sky, vaulting over the the heroes and landing in front of Athena as she tried to retreat. Baring her claws that crackled with violet power, Shaina looked down upon Saori and prepared to strike. "My duties as a Saint prevent me from taking your life, but there's nothing stopping me from doing something for your own good!"

THOK!

Shaina grunted in pain as something hard and metal fell on top of her head, causing her to hold onto her head while Saori ran past her towards the barricade Mu had mentioned. When she opened her eyes, she saw that it was a cast-iron frying pan, and it came from the peculiar cosmo now standing next to the treacherous reincarnation of Athena. "Luna," Usagi called out to the pre-teen ally holding her Star tambourine in one hand and Usagi's baby Chibiusa in the other. "Has Chibiusa given you any problems while we were away?"

"I changed her diaper and now she's fast asleep," Luna said with a smile before running off with Saori. "I'll make sure she gets someplace safe. This way, Saori-san!"

Covering their escape, the warriors quickly surrounded Shaina so that she wouldn't have a chance to chase after them. But rather than curse her fate, Shaina only chuckled softly as she again took to the air and landed next to her five allies. All nineteen of them knew that eventually their plans and meetings would come down to this: the forces of Sanctuary and Fiore, against the combined might of the Saints still loyal to Athena and the Inner Senshi loyal to their friends. In each of their minds, they knew that they were the ones in the right, and as long as they still held onto that belief, there was no way they could lose.

"Usagi," Gesen called out to Usagi in the group and folded his arms, "I have to say I was disappointed that you and the Pegasus Saint didn't go up against each other like your friends did. Shaina and I were having a debate on who would win if it went down, and we were hoping the push Fiore gave you in the right direction would settle our dispute. We even thought about putting a wager on it."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Gesen," Usagi shot back as the group straightened out so that they could stand side by side, "but friends always get back together after arguments, and the Bronze Saints are our friends! And as long as we have each other, nothing you can say or do to us will break us apart!"

"How coincidental. Shaina and I were talking about that, and we agree entirely," Gesen replied before snapping his fingers. "GOLEM TROOPERS!"

"SPECTRE PURES!" Shaina snapped her own fingers in collaboration.

When the Golems and Spectre Pures appeared when this alliance began, they didn't appear more than a dozen at a time. The reason for that was that having too many of them run around at the same time would often make operations chaotic and difficult to manage. But for Phase 2 of Fiore's grand plan, he had given Gesen and Shaina the all-clear to make a battlefield as dangerous and uncontrollable as they saw fit. Therefore, emerging from the pavement and streets were not one dozen, two dozen, or three, but a solid one hundred foot soldiers that surrounded the Saints and Senshi, with Uranus, Gesen, Neptune, Deathmask and Shaina closing in.

"Everyone...you guys ready to join the party?" Seiya asked his comrades as he readied his morpher.

"READY," the other Saints said in unison. "CLOTH CHANGER!"

With their cosmo funneling into their morphers until they reached critical mass, the Saints pointed their fists skyward and allowed their respective cloths to be launched into the air. As they materialized into their neutral statue-like forms, the Saints took to the air after them and allowed the Cloths to adorn their bodies in rapid fashion. When the six Saints landed next to Marin, they assumed their usual battle positions and sounded off as they had many times before.

"Racing through the heavens...Pegasus Saint, Seiya!"

"Diving through the heavens...Cygnus Saint, Hyoga!"

"Surging through the heavens...Dragon Saint, Shiryu!"

"Unbinding the heavens...Andromeda Saint, Shun!"

"Scorching the heavens...Phoenix Saint, Ikki!"

"Unveiling the heavens...Aries Saint, Mu."

"Soaring through the heavens...Eagle Saint, Marin!"

Returning to a neutral stance, Seiya stepped forward and allowed his cosmo to ignite, surrounding himself in a red aura of power while his comrades did the same. "Our cosmo shines with the light of hope!" Keeping their cosmos at their peak, the magnificent seven warriors struck a dynamic pose. "ZODIAC KNIGHTS!"

"Hmhm...not bad, boys," Usagi said with a giggle before hardened her expression and focusing her energy into her morpher. "Girls, let's show them how we do it! MOON PRISM POWER..."

"MERCURY STAR POWER..."

"MARS STAR POWER..."

"JUPITER STAR POWER..."

"VENUS STAR POWER..."

"PLUTO CRYSTAL POWER…"

As their bodies became encased in a veil of power, the six young women uttered the words to finish their transformation. "...MAKE UP!"

In a flash of light, six Sailor Senshi stood next to the Moonlight Knight who remained ready as always for his turn at letting the enemy know just who they were dealing with now.

"Shining through darkness, I am the light of justice that cuts through the night, the Moonlight Knight has arrived!"

"Guardian of Time and Revolution, I am the beautiful Sailor Senshi, Sailor Pluto!"

"Guardian of Love and Beauty, I am the pretty Sailor Senshi, Sailor Venus!"

"Guardian of Love and Courage, I am the pretty Sailor Senshi, Sailor Jupiter!"

"Guardian of Love and Passion, I am the pretty Sailor Senshi, Sailor Mars!"

"Guardian Love and Wisdom, I am the pretty Sailor Senshi, Sailor Mercury!"

"Guardian of Love and Justice, I am the pretty Sailor Senshi, Sailor Moon!"

Bringing their own energies to their peak, the seven warriors sounded off again and issued a warning that would likely be heeded far too late.

"And in the name of the Moon…"

"And in the name of Mercury…"

"And in the name of Mars…"

"And in the name of Jupiter…"

"And in the name of Venus…"

"And in the name of Pluto…"

"And in the name of the Earth…"

Their energies reached fever pitch, matching the intensity of the Saints, as they shouted in unison, "We shall punish you!"

Keeping their energies at their maximum, the Saints and Senshi were about to go into battle when they heard uncomfortably heavy breathing coming from their ranks. After looking around for a couple of seconds to see where it was coming from, they realized it was Moonlight Knight visually hyperventilating, making a noise that might have been more apt from someone who getting romantic favors than a hero about to fight the forces of evil. "Are you OK?" Hyoga raised an eyebrow in curiosity before turning to the Senshi. "Hey, is he alright?"

"He's fine," Rei said with a roll of her eyes. "This must be like porn to him…"

"...want to start us off, Mamoru?" Usagi offered with a hand on the anxious white warrior's shoulder. "I know you want to…"

"But...I cannot. It can only be done by the leads," Mamoru protested before taking a deep breath and regaining composure. "Sailor Moon...the honor goes to you!"

"And I guess me, too," Seiya said and he and Usagi stepped forward. With the fourteen warriors tucking their arms inward…

"IT'S….SUPER HERO TIME!"

...their gathered energies finally became unleashed as massive explosions of pink, blue, green, and yellow burst from the earth, followed by a massive red explosion that consumed the others from the center. The final battle was finally about to begin, and even though they were tired and worn from in-fighting, their courage burned as brightly as ever.

"...do you all feel better about yourselves now that you've gotten that out of your system?" Gesen asked after a long, awkward pause.

Seeing the other Senshi and Saints nod amongst themselves in agreement, Shaina clenched her fist until her temper boiled over. "Grrrr...don't mock us with your theatrics! ATTACK! EVERYONE, ATTACK!"


	9. Act IX

"PHOENIX GENMA KEN!"

Under most circumstances, no matter the strength or supposed godhood of the victim, Ikki's Phoenix Genma Ken spelled irrevocable doom. An attack that targeted the brain of the opponent, Ikki used his fist's cosmo to manipulate an enemy's nervous system, sending him into a spiral of their worst nightmares until they literally died of fright, or were put in a coma if they were lucky. In theory, a single Golem Trooper would prove absolutely no challenge given that the move had felled opponents who otherwise outclassed the Phoenix Saint.

In practice, it left much to be desired. The Golem Trooper, upon being struck, shuddered for a few moments, and then turned around to deliver a spiked slip to Ikki's head. Ikki growled in pain as the thorns scratched his forehead and drew forth a streak of red, and the second slap skid across his armor to unleash a spray of sparks. Quickly backing off, Ikki assumed a defensive stance and grabbed the Golem's attacking arm before driving his elbow into his face as hard as he could. "Sailor Mars," he shouted to his fiery Senshi counterpart. "Explain why this Golem is not dead!"

"You have to target the flowers," Rei shouted back before summoning a pillar of fire to keep a pack of Spectre Pures from swarming upon her before she dealt with the Golem Trooper currently attacking her. Grabbing onto the humanoid flower embedded in the Golem's chest, Mars ripped it out of its roots and set it ablaze, where it shrieked in pain before falling pathetically silent. Without the flower controlling it or holding its body together, the Golem crumbled into pieces. "The Golem Troopers have been hollowed out by those flowers. Take them out, and their bodies will fall apart!"

Ikki turned back to the Golem that scratched him and noticed the flower Rei spoke of. He then promptly set it ablaze. Watching the vines jutting out of the Golem's head and body burst into flame in a chain reaction held a sadistic interest for Ikki, and he took a moment to admire his handiwork before turning to the other Golem Troopers with a cruel grin. "Thanks for the tip. This is going to be fun!"

"Now help me out," Rei snapped back as she kicked a Spectre Pure in the chest with a snapping leg, only for a blast of pain to be shot through her foot thanks to the mystic metal armor the Spectres wore. "What do I have to do to keep these zombies down for the count?"

"Destroy the masks," Ikki said curtly. "Without those masks, they're just empty shells."

Thankfully, Rei had just the technique to deal with situations like this. Summoning a handful of talismans that she would use for exorcisms as a priestess, Rei slapped one on each of the five Spectre Pures surrounding her and infused them with her spirit energy. Once they were on securely, Sailor Mars muttered a quick incantation before opening her eyes just as the five of them were going to attack her simultaneously.

"ARUKYO TAI SAN!"

The talismans exploded in a blast of fire, shattering the black masks of the Spectre Pures into thousands of crystalline pieces that forced Sailor Mars to lift her hands up to prevent the shrapnel from flying into her eyes and mouth. As she lowered her arms, she saw the unmasked Spectre Pures convulse violently, revealing their fresh skulls before they collapsed onto the ground lifeless and dissolved into foam.

More Golem Troopers and Spectre Pures charged forward, but now that Ikki and Rei knew both of their weaknesses, the threat they posed was greatly diminished. With his fists and feet burning with his cosmo, Ikki set the Golem Troopers ablaze with rapid punches, strong kicks, and the occasional uprooting of the flowers so that he could hear its death screams and watch the Golems crumble to pieces. For the Spectre Pures, Ikki only needed to shatter their black masks, which he had done many times in the past.

Even though they were allies, Rei was still quite uncomfortable around Ikki and his insatiable lust for violence, but she didn't really have much room to talk as she engulfed the Golem Tropers in flames while shattering the masks of the Spectre Pures with snapping kicks and the occasional punch. One Spectre Pure and Golem Trooper decided to attack her at the same time, so she drove her knee into the Spectre Pure's mask and then unleashed a jet of flame to incinerate the Xenian flower on the Golem Trooper before she even had a chance to fall back onto the ground.

Once they finally had some room to breathe, Ikki and Rei accidentally bumped into each other from behind, prompting them to turn around quickly and assume a fighting position with their respective energies ready to set the opponent aflame. Yet even when they realized it was each other they bumped into, they didn't immediately calm down, and only exchanged an intense stare...and then, they smirked at each other.

Both of them were fully aware of what the other one wanted to do to the other for what happened at the Saitama Mall, even though Saori had purified the psychic virus they were infected with. But for now, they turned the other way and went back to work on the legion of grunts that their enemies idiotically thought would do anything to them other than to make them angry.

-

"It's +60 on BLOCK!?"

"Mm," Ami nodded her head in between swatting a Spectre Pure in the face so hard that it left a noticable crack in its protective mask. "If you block both attacks, it leads to a guard break and then I can throw or do a mix-up. The only way you can stop it is if you parry!"

"That's ridiculous, but I believe you," Hyoga balked as he delivered an elbow to the face of a Golem Trooper before sending another sprawling away with a thrust kick. "Most games get patched in a few months, but Soul Calibur is a game that was just left as is so all kinds of crazy nonsense are there for players to exploit."

"This-NNGH-may surprise you," Ami turned around to strike the Spectre Pure that attacked her from behind with a spinning roundhouse kick, instantly shattering the mask and turning it into a puddle of goo, "but I just play games to unwind and because my friends encourage me to keep doing it. I'm more focused on my career as a doctor, and I I just so happen to have good hands that help me in the operating room and on the cabinets."

Hyoga chuckled as he grabbed onto one of the Golem Trooper's flowers and froze it solid before chopping it off with his hand and watching the Golem fall to the ground on its knees. Once it flopped onto its belly, Hyoga placed his foot on top of its back and then fended off the other Golems and Spectres attacking him. "Just admit that you like the competition. You love testing yourself and the feeling you get when you pass that test, so you go to the arcade after work and start handing out losses left and right."

Ami smashed the mask of a Spectre Pure with a forward punch and and blasted another one with a back elbow smash from the attacking arm. With those two enemies dealt with, Ami focused her watery energy in her hands and unleashed a stream of highly pressurized bubbles onto a pack of Golem Troopers who then fell over on top of one another. "MERCURY AQUA BLIZZARD," Ami shouted as she brought a harsh winter onto the flowers of those golems and caused them to harden with a thick coating of ice. The Golems squirmed along with the frozen flower's dying thrones, and then crumbled into pieces as the flower's vines died along with the source.

"You were a straight A student, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was," Ami nodded her head before widening her eyes and unleashing another blast of snow, this time behind Hyoga so that she could freeze the body of a Spectre Pure that was planning to attack him from behind while he had his hands full with a pair of flowers still attached to the Golems that failed to take him down. The blast instantly froze and shattered the Spectre Pure's mask, and it collapsed over Hyoga's shoulder who quickly brushed him off before destroying the flowers and defeating the two Golems.

"And I take it straight A's felt good? It made you feel empowered, didn't it?"

"No. I got straight A's because it's what my mother wanted of me. I buried myself into my studies until Usagi and the others showed me there was more to life than studying," Ami replied as she summoned her scimitar of sapphire metal and started cutting down the enemies around her. "It's the same reason I go to the Crown. I don't want to prove my dominance or anything like that. I just want to meet new people and become friends with them."

"A person's worth is only known if you bring them to their limit," Hyoga stated in between smashing heads with his freezing cosmo humming in his fists, bringing an icy clobbering to the Spectres and Golems on his side. ""If both competitors are pushed to their extremes, they'll know what lies in the heart of the other. I know you're a kind-hearted person because I pushed you to your limit at the arcade and on the battlefield. What do you think of me?"

Ami sliced off a pair of flowers and cut another mask in two before replying. "I think you enjoy pushing your limits and expect the people you meet to do the same. I don't think I could live like that: there's too many people counting on me. If I lost myself like that while I was doing surgery, someone could get hurt."

"And that's why-HIYAH-I probably won't become a doctor," Hyoga shattered three frozen Golems with a spinning kick before exhaling and walking over to Ami as she finished up her end of the foot soldiers. "I don't want anyone to suffer if they're not willing to play my game. I spent most of my life training to be a Saint so I'm not sure what I'll do once I'm finished with my duties. Maybe I'll try my hand at extreme sports: the snowcaps of West Siberia are-eh?"

Hyoga and Ami felt something shift between their feet, and looked down to see the puddles of foam and clay slowly flowing underneath them. Quickly jumping away, Ami and Hyoga focused their icy power in case there was an attack, but noticed that the puddles weren't interested in them...at least yet. At the moment, they seemed to be flowing away from them as if they were retreating.

"...have they ever done that before?"

"No," Hyoga's expression hardened as they watched the last of the mook flow away from them. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

-

"I knew you and I were meant to be, baby," Deathmask stroked his chin as he dodged Sailor Pluto's attacks from her staff, not concerned that it contained the power of time and space and even one strike could have unfathomable consequences on his existence. "From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were going to give me the time of my life. This is pretty fun, y'know?"

"Pig," Sailor Pluto pulled her staff back and struck Deathmask in the chest with the tip of her weapon. Deathmask breathed a sigh of relief when his body didn't immediately turn inside-out or fade from reality like he worried about, but he figured the way the crystal at the top of the staff flashed would have the consequence he was initially expected. "There's no place for you in this or any world! It's time for you to-OOF!"

Deathmask silenced Pluto with a swift kick to her stomach, followed by a spinning backhand that sent her stumbling away and using her staff to keep herself standing, "It's time for me to have some fun, I agree 100%!" With a snap of his fingers, Deathmask summoned an awful howling noise preceding the manifestation of several sparkles of blue fire that hovered around his person. "But what fun would a party be without my friends? Butter her up for me, boys and girls!"

The howling sparks charged towards the guardian of time and space, and she found herself on the defensive dodging and weaving the fire. "This energy...these are the spirits of the people you've killed," Sailor Pluto rolled forward and charged Deathmask with her staff raised for a bludgeoning he wouldn't soon forget. "You dare flaunt the weight of your sins at me? Who do you think you are?"

"SEKISHIKI MEIKAI HA!"

Unfortunately, it was exactly what Deathmask was hoping she'd do. With his hand glowing with power, Deathmask cut the air vertically and opened a tear in time and space. Sailor Pluto had formed a number of them herself in her past, present, and future life, but it was too late for her to do anything but get sucked in. With the portal closing behind Pluto, Deathmask chuckled deviously before turning to his former comrade Mu, who was having problems of his own with Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. "Be right back, Aries! I'm about to go steal your girl!"

"SETSUNA," Mu shouted as Deathmask jumped into one of his own portals, just as Uranus punched him in the face and sent him stumbling backwards.

By the time Mu stopped seeing stars, Uranus and Neptune had already gotten into position to unleashed their most powerful attacks on him. Feeling their cosmo reach their limit and not entirely sure his armor would fully protect him, Aries Mu quickly focused his own cosmo for defensive measures.

"URANUS WORLD SHAKER!"

"NEPTUNE DEEP SUBMERGE!"

With two orbs of concentrated power rocketed towards him on either side, each one with sufficient power to put him down for the count, Mu opened his eyes and erected his defense: a pair of transparent barriers that caught the blasts with a loud crackling sound coming from each point of impact. After a few seconds of struggling, Mu exerted himself once more and sent both blasts rocketing back towards their wielders. When the duo dodged the counter, a massive explosion rocked the city as the attacks detonated in a couple of shops, collapsing the buildings as if they were made of twigs.

"You know, my parents used to shop at that toy store when I was younger," Michiru clamored as she and Haruka double-teamed Mu. "Think of all of the children you've made sad just now!"  
"My company engages in charity work. I'll begin my contributions to repairing the damage tomorrow," Mu replied before sending Michiru sprawling away with a thrust of his cosmo-infused palm. However, he was not quick enough to stop Haruka from wrapping his arms around his head and attempt to choke him out with a sleeper hold. "NGH! You don't seem worried...about your friend!"

"You mean Setsuna?" Uranus said with a smirk even though Mu managed to force himself out of her hold. "You should be more worried about your pig of a friend Deathmask. Setsuna's not locked in that dimension with him...he's locked in that dimension with her."

-

"WA-TAAAAH!"

With Shiryu executing his flying kick to the face of the Spectre Pure, Makoto planted the defeated grunt into the ground with a powerbomb before latching onto the next Golem Trooper and placing it in a submission hold while Shiryu pulverized it with his fists. "So, Shiryu," Makoto said to her ally as he punched his fist through the Golem and obliterated the flower controlling it. "You said you've seen some of my fights? Which one is your favorite?"

"The one you had two months ago at the Budokan was very entertaining," Shiryu waited for Makoto to toss the defeated Golem aside before punching over her shoulder to obliterate the mask of a Spectre Pure, while Makoto did the same over his. Placing their backs against one another to deal with the next wave, Shiryu continued his critique while Makoto listened carefully. "You have amazing strikes, but you don't seem to use them much in the ring? Any reason why?"

"I've always had trouble holding back, especially now that I'm a Senshi again," Makoto explained as she fired off a bolt of lightning to electrocute five of the Golem Hei, keeping the voltage at his maximum until the Golem's Xenian flowers burst into flame along with the vines attached to the body. "Ever since this new enemy appeared, I've been the strongest I've ever been. It's gotten to a point where I'm afraid I could seriously hurt my opponent."

"A-CHA! Isn't that the entire point of mixed martial arts? You win by knockout, tapout, or decision. You're trying to be the champ, right?"

Covering for Shiryu as he swatted away the punch of a Spectre Pure and shattered its mask with a single jab of his hand, Makoto did the same to another Spectre Pure with an electrified chop that not only smashed the mask, but the skull underneath. "I want to be champion, but my powers have increased so much that if I go all out in the ring, I'll wind up being that one fighter who killed her opponent in the ring. Even if they know the risks, I don't want that blood on my hands."

"Then your training is incomplete," Shiryu tapped Makoto on the shoulder, and she instinctively ducked so that Shiryu could executing a spinning kick that cleared the mob around them. As the grunts lay on the ground writhing, the Dragon Saint faced Sailor Jupiter and showed her his crackling fist. "Master Dohko told me that there are two kinds of fists in battle: the Fist that Destroys Everything, and the Fist that Achieves Victory."

"I see," Makoto nodded her head before her eyes widened, signaling for Shiryu to duck as she annihilated a Spectre Pure with a Jupiter Lightning Lariat. "So they're not the same? We always talk about becoming the strongest. I guess you're talking about the ability to reach the mountaintop and then finding a way to control the results of your training."

Once Makoto was behind him and turning her head to face him while holding a Golem Trooper in a submission hold, Shiryu inhaled and gently placed his glowing palm on a charging Golem. The Golem paused as Shiryu gently touched him, confused by his gesture, but the intent was soon made clear as Shiryu exhaled and pushed his palm forward. While the arm did not extend much, if at all, the force that came out was enough to drill a hole through the Golem's chest, destroying the flower controlling it and the Golem's body as a result.

"More Bruce Lee stuff," Sailor Jupiter rolled her eyes before taking her crackling palm and ripping the flower from the chest of her captured Golem, letting go as it crumbled in her arms and then crushing the flower underneath her boot. "Remember what I told you about Bruce Lee's history with grapplers. If my opponent doesn't decide to wait for my to gather my ki, I could have a broken hand."

"No, you won't. They won't see it coming," Shiryu replied with a grin as both he and Sailor Jupiter crackled with power. "In the meantime, let's show these guys the fruits of our training! ROZAN SHORYU-HA!"

"JUPITER THUNDER DRAGON!"

-

As twin dragons of energy rocketed into the sky, Shun continued his conversation with Minako. Before encountering her, Shun's band was a simple side project that helped distract him in between the bouts of violence Sanctuary would thrust upon him. He only auditioned for Minako's tour because his big brother Ikki convinced him that he would enjoy it. When he actually got the job, Shun wondered what kind of person Minako was when the spotlight went out and she went about her business. So now that the bloodlust tainting their professional relationship had been removed, Shun took the opportunity to learn more about his opposite in the Sailor Senshi.

To his surprise, they had a similar taste in music despite their differences in genre. "You don't strike me as someone who would be heavy into grunge music, Ms. Aino…"

"I always keep an open eye. You never know when a good collaboration offer comes along."

"I see...so is that why you're not a fan of Nirvana?"

"Because I can't collaborate with them because the singer died? No, it's just that there are better grunge acts than them. They might be the most popular, but how much is that because of their sudden tragedy?"

"I think that's unfair, Ms. Aino. If Kurt Cobain didn't end up like he did, who knows how many more great songs Nirvana could have came up with. I wear their patch on my jacket because it reminds me how sacred life is, because it represents unlimited potential."

"Hence why I'm not a fan. It's one thing to die of natural causes, but Kurt took his own life. We all have hardships in life we have to deal with. Do you think I chose to become a Sailor Senshi? It's my responsibility to protect the smiles of the princess and the people."

"...so who's your favorite grunge band?"

For her answer, Minako looked up to the web of chains she and Shun erected with their respective weapons, where a couple dozen foot soldiers were helplessly dangling by their arms, legs, and necks. "I've always been partial to Alice in Chains," she said with a grin.

"Ooooh," Shun nodded his head before following her gaze and focusing his cosmo through his chain. "NEBULA THUNDER WAVE!"

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

Sending their pink and yellow energies through the chains, the Andromeda Saint and Sailor Venus set off a chain reaction that caused everything within the web to detonate in a massive burst of flame, with debris of armor, decayed flesh, burning foliage and clay falling onto the ground. "What are your thoughts on punk?" Shun asked as his Nebula Chain retracted back into his gauntlet.

"I've thought about bringing some punk influence in my next album. Now that I'm not bound by teen idol stereotypes I can really experiment with my sound," Minako replied as her chain vanished in a flash of yellow energy. "I'll talk to the manager about bringing you on if you're up for it. What's the fastest tempo you can play at?"

"340 BPM. After the Holy War I want to try some Visual-eh?"

Seeing something move at the corner of his eye, Shun turned to see a piece of clay roll on its own volition...towards the rest of the "herd" of pieces that seemed to be heading for the intersection between the battlefield at the police barrier. "That's strange...we should have defeated them, but I can still feel faint bits of cosmo coming from their pieces. That's never happened before."

"...maybe not for you," Sailor Venus' expression hardened as she noticed that Sailor Mercury and the Cygnus Saint had finished their share of the workload and were watching the herd of pieces congregating with confusion on their faces. "Come on, let's go help the others. I have a bad feeling about this…"

-

To the north, volcanoes erupted to unleash molten rock heated by the fires of Hell itself.

To the south, the ranks of the damned walked the path to King Minos, where their final destinations would be decided. There was no hope for escape, because there was nowhere else to go.

To the east, the river Styx flowed with the stench of the water being as foul as ever. Somewhere on the river, Charon was ferrying the latest arrivals to the gates, where they would begin the long march to King Minos' courtroom.

And to the west, Sailor Pluto was losing her patience with the Cancer Saint that attempted to run her through with his pincers of cosmo. The dimension he transported her to was supposedly the entrance to Hell, and the sparks of fire that would occasionally brush against her were the spirits of those he had killed in his career. When they first arrived, he bragged about claiming lives also meant claiming their souls, to be used on his whim for his "crusade for Justice."

"YA-HOOO," Deathmask howled as he opened the pincers to sever Sailor Pluto's head, forcing her to lift her staff to parry the attack. With the two of them pushing against once another, Deathmask used his formidable strength to force Sailor Pluto down on one knee. He could sense victory fast approaching, and so allowed himself more opportunities to gloat. "You holier-than-thou types fall for the same trap every single time! Here in Hell, everyone is my friend! You're all alone, and that's why you're going to be joining the people down on the path!"

"Do you...think this bothers me?"

"Eh?"

Setsuna kicked Deathmask in the shin to disrupt his footing so that she could stand up and deliver a boot to his face to knock him over. "I said, do you think this bothers me? Do you really think I have anything to fear from you or this place?"

Cancer Deathmask rolled with the blow and returned to his feet to send his victims' souls after his opponent, but they were unable to breach the barrier of light that she had encased herself in. But the barrier wasn't a result of a defensive measure: Deathmask could sense her cosmo rising sharply, to a point where he was no longer completely confident that she could be beaten in his current state. "Oooh...you've been holding out on me, baby! These first dates are so we can make sure we're made for each other, y'know!"

"I am the guardian of time. Life and death are completely irrelevant to me...as is your outdated concept of an afterlife," Setsuna shouted before pointing her glowing staff at Deathmask. "Trying to contain me in this place is as futile as trying to contain a block hole in a glass jar! Your insolence knows no bounds!"

-

"MOONLIGHT SLASH!"

With his blade flashing with white energy, the Moonlight Knight cut down another handful of foot soldiers, slicing off masks and flowers so that his enemies could melt and crumble into nothingness. While his bizarre behavior and obsession with tropes often gave the Sailor Senshi headaches (although Usagi found her brainwashed husband's sense of heroism attractive in several ways), no one doubted the incredible fighting prowess he brought to any battle he chose to interject himself in. At one point in the Senshi's battles with Fiore's group, the Moonlight Knight was capable of fending off both Fiore and Gesen on his own, something that the Senshi had difficulty doing even when at full strength.

But because of his modesty, or more accurately his mindfulness of decorum because it was not his place to steal the spotlight from "the main character" Sailor Moon, tonight he was content with using his abilities to completely obliterate anyone and everyone that came anywhere close to his more popular comrades. The other Saints and Senshi had predictably paired off when dealing with the enemy forces based on their "relevance to the story," so the Moonlight Knight was currently fighting the forces of evil was the woman he had deemed his opposite.

"Very impressive, Moonlight Knight," Marin complimented the Moonlight Knight's rampage as she delivered a jumping roundhouse kick to shatter the masks of the Spectre Pures around her in a circular motion. Once she landed, she took the skies once more by crushing another mask with a backflip kick and then landing on the face of a Golem Trooper and slicing off the flower controlling it with a swipe of her hand. "You are truly a warrior without equal!"

"You flatter me, Eagle Saint," Moonlight Knight cut down one more Golem Trooper before turning to Marin and bowing politely. "I am only a plot device that intervenes when the situation calls for the Senshi to make their big comeback. Now that we have begun Super Hero Time, victory will surely be ours as long as we keep fighting!"

"I see. It sounds like you have a lot of experience with these types of brawls," the red-haired warrior placed her hand on the Moonlight Knight's back and vaulted over him to deliver a kick to a Spectre Pure that was about to attack him from behind. As soon as he felt the weight of her body disappear, the Moonlight Knight rose up and cut down another Golem Trooper before sheathing his blade and lifting his fists. "Is it true what Sailor Moon said about you being her husband? Why do you not go back to her if you know this, even with your memories gone?"

"It would not be fair of me to come back to her if I don't even remember how we first met, or our wedding day, or the day our daughter was bo-MOONLIGHT PUNCH," Moonlight Knight explained before he smashed the mask of a Spectre with his fist. "There has to be a purpose as to why I've awoken as the Moonlight Knight, and I believe that as soon as I figure out that purpose, Mamoru Chiba will return to the be the loving husband and father he must be for Sailor Moon to pine for him so."

"EAGLE TALON CUT," Marin cut down two Golem Troopers with a swipe of her cosmo-infused hand before responding. "I have a similar issue with my pupil Seiya. He has convinced himself that I am his long-lost older sister...and a part of me wonders if I actually am. I joined Sanctuary when I was very young, and had a younger brother who greatly resembled Seiya. Fate would suggest that we were meant to reunite as Saints...but what if we're wrong?"

"What would be wrong with that? MOONLIGHT PUNCH!"

"If we're wrong, then we'll choosing to forsake our real siblings who no doubt look for us as much we look for them. EAGLE RYUUSEI-KEN!" Marin bombarded the swarming Golems and Spectres with rapid blasts of cosmo as she and Moonlight Knight stood side by side and looked to the last Golem standing. "Just as you have a mission you need to finish, so do I before I can decide if Seiya is my brother. For now he is a wonderful student and a warm-hearted man, and it is for his future that I fight, just as you fight for Sailor Moon!"

"MOONLIGHT KICK!"  
"EAGLE TOE FLASH!"

Both masked fighters took to the air and lifted their legs for a double diving kick. The Golem could only watch its end approach it and be obliterated by the combined force of the attack in a burst of flame and clay debris.

-  
"Seiya! Today I'll finally claim your heart!"

"No, no, no! Don't sound so aggressive," Sailor Moon parried Shaina's swipe with her rod and countered with a swipe of her own that was parried right back. "NGH! Seiya might seem energetic, but he's actually very sweet and gentle! You have to approach him with more femininity, or he'll get scared off!"

"You don't-ACH-have to give her tips, Usagi," Seiya said as he blocked a shot from Gesen's sledgehammer-like weapon with an overhead block and then kicked the cyborg away with a front kick. "Shaina is amazing all the same! Shaina-san, how many times have I asked you out since you came to Japan? Let's put a stop to this and we can enjoy the Shinjuku nightlife! There's a great karaoke bar a couple of blocks-"

"Stop teasing me, traitor! I will squeeze every last drop of blood from you before the night is over," Shaina delivered an elbow thrust to Sailor Moon's chest to knock her out of her line of fire, and then unleashed a stream of violet electricity on Seiya, drawing forth a blast of sparks and fire as the attack ricocheted off of Seiya's armor. With Seiya on one knee, Shaina charged forward with her claws bared for murder, but once again Sailor Moon stood in her way and tripped her with a low strike of her rod.

"Don't worry, Shaina, I'll soften him up for you," Gesen pointed the laser blaster attached to his gauntlet directly in Seiya's face, but Seiya was able to reach up and point the weapon upwards, where it discharged into the upper floors of a business tower and unleashed an explosion of fire and broken glass. With Gesen momentarily distracted by his friendly fire, Seiya delivered a palm strike to his stomach and stood up with a flipping kick to his chin to send the cyborg stumbling backwards.

"Boys, you'll just have to entertain yourselves for just a little bit longer. We're having a girl talk right now," Sailor Moon chided while she charged her pink energy into the rod, delivering rapid strikes to Shaina that drew forth a spray of sparks with every hit. "Now, Shaina, I know you really care for Seiya and want to hook up with him, but if you want him to be yours, you have to be a little more refined than 'kill kill kill!' There's a lovely clothing store a little bit north of here. I bet you'd have him wrapped around your finger if you came on to him wearing-"

"Silence, girl! Gesen wasn't joking when he said you talked too much," Shaina unleashed a crescent kick that Usagi weaved under, following with a spinning chop that was skillfully parried by the heroine and a second spin that struck her on the opposite side of her head. "There's only one way to Seiya's heart, and that's through his chest cavity that I'll rip open as he screams my name!"

"Oooh, that actually sounds pretty kinky, I mean without the whole mutilation part," Sailor Moon pressed down on her tiara and unleashed a flash of light that blinded Shaina long enough for her to crouch down and send both of them rocketing into the sky with Sailor Moon driving her spiraling fist into Shaina's chin. "MOON LOVELY SCREW PUNCH!"

"So, what's your deal, Gesen," Seiya looked into the crimson eyes of his opponent as he dodged a couple more energy blasts before countering with a few of his own: his Pegasus Ryuusei-ken that was skillfully evaded by Gesen's side roll. "Usagi says you two know each other on a first name basis. I bet you're a jilted lover who learned that she's already married and now you take your frustrations out on the Senshi team as a Neo-Youma!"  
"That's disgusting for any number of reasons," Gesen shot back along with a blast of his death ray which Seiya swatted away so that it could create a plume of fire on the street behind them. "Besides, I definitely wouldn't give away my true identity to someone like you. You'll just have to wonder what's behind my helmet in the afterlife. Shaina, do you feel like tagging off? Your boyfriend is starting to-"

"HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND! THUNDER CLAW!"

Gesen's remark lit a fire underneath Shaina and forced her to unleash more streaks of violet lightning that created a flash of fire and sparks, forcing Sailor Moon and the Pegasus Saint to run for cover and Gesen to retreat back to Shaina's side so he could join the flurry of attacks with bolts from his gauntlet. There weren't many places Usagi and Seiya could cover from, but there was plenty of wide-open space in the Shinjuku district they could use for evasive maneuvers.

Once it was clear that Shaina and Gesen weren't going to tire out, Seiya and Usagi skid to a halt and instead charged through the melee to unleash offense of their own.

"PEGASUS SUI SEI KEN!"  
"MOONLIGHT ATTRACTIVE ATTACK!"

With Sailor Moon's large energy attack acting as cover fire, the Pegasus Saint charged in and delivered cosmo-infused punches to both assailants, sending them flying backwards with the combined forces of Seiya's fist and Usagi's spirit energy fueling their ride. Both fighters crashed down hard onto the pavement and showed noticeable wear in how slow they were getting up, but their fighting spirits were nowhere close to extinguished.

-

"GAH!"

The tear in space that Deathmask created opened once more to reveal the Cancer Saint quickly crawling out of it as Sailor Pluto chased him back into the human world with her staff flashing with power. His "date" with Dr. Setsuna Meioh went far poorer than he expected, and now she had kicked him out of his house and was looking for some alimony in the form of his screams of pain. Aries Mu and his opponents Uranus and Neptune had found themselves in a standstill since they were transported to the Gate of Hell, and the return had the potential to help turn the tide.

"Haruka-chan, Michiru-chan," Deathmask crawled to the two Other Senshi's feet and scrambled into a standing position. "You have to give me a hand! She kicked me out of my house! No one's ever done that before!"

"PLUTO…"  
"Grrr, here it comes! Alright, ladies, let's do a big team-up finishing attack and show this broad who's-EH!?"

"Let 'im have it, Setsuna," Uranus shouted as she locked Deathmask in place by latching onto his left arm.

"DEAD…"

"Sorry, Deathmask, but you really shouldn't have put your hands on us," Michiru whispered in Deathmask's ear with sadistic glee as she latched onto his right arm.

"SCREAM!"

Pointing her staff at Deathmask, Sailor Pluto unleashed a ball of crackling purple energy that rocketed towards the Cancer Saint like a cannonball. Once it was absolutely clear that there was no way Deathmask would be able to get away from it, Uranus and Neptune let go of him and ran for cover so that he could be pulverized by Sailor Pluto's ultimate technique. The Pluto Dead Scream had felled countless opponents, but Deathmask and his Cancer cloth were made of stronger stuff. Unfortunately for him, neither of them emerged from the blast able to return fire.

With the Cancer Saint armor noticeably cracking in certain parts while Deathmask's face was scarred and bruised, Uranus and Neptune promptly spit on his groaning body before turning to Mu and Setsuna. "We were waiting for you to help us put that moron in his place," Uranus called out to Setsuna before she and Neptune turned away from them and started walking away from the battlefield. "We'll settle this another time, Setsuna. I hope you and your friends are prepared for Phase 3…"

"You think you can just walk away after what you've-"

"Let them go, doctor," Mu turned to the congregating mass at the center of street. "I think we're about to have other problems."

-

Gesen and Shaina were surrounded.

With no less than 14 Sailor Senshi and Saints of Athena combining their strength, every single one of their allies were either destroyed, lying unconscious, or retreating. Shaina bared her claws and prepared for her last stand, but Gesen put a hand in front of her and instead turned to the mass of debris that had gradually been joining together from the remains of the Golem Troopers and Spectre Pures. "I bet you guys are feeling proud of yourselves right now, aren't you?"

The answer wasn't immediately, as all of the combatants were visibly exhausted from the brawl they had just finished. Since dusk, all the Saints and Senshi had been doing was fighting, whether it be each other or their usual antagonists. Their breath was haggard, and their shoulders were bouncing up and down as they took deep, quick breaths. But even so, there were fourteen of them and the enemy had dwindled down to two. Their victory was assured, and the only option available to Gesen and Shaina was retreat.

But then it finally hit them. A few of the Saints and Senshi had a nagging feeling that not everything was what it seemed, but now all of them could sense the overwhelmingly dreadful power emanating from the center of the Shinjuku intersection. "Master Fiore is not such a simpleton that his place would solely rely on you trying to attack each other, or even us trying to defeat you. He figured that the Golem Troopers and Spectre Pures would prove no match for you even after you softened yourselves up for us."

"...what are you up to, Gesen?"

"It should be obvious by now, Usagi," Gesen folded his arms as the last pieces of the defeated foot soldiers finally reached the mass, and the blob began to take humanoid shape. "There's a saying that's apt for the situation at hand...'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.'"


	10. Act X

"In your country's past, shamans would initiate a ritual called 'kodoku.'"

Transmitting his will through Gesen's body as his core and eyes turned a light blue, Fiore spoke to the Saints and Senshi as they watched the mass of debris take amalgamated form. Even when every single Golem Trooper and Spectre Pure came at them with everything they had, their combined power didn't add up to the dark energy that was emanating from the shifting blob now taking humanoid shape. The primordial muck was now assuming a more cohesive aesthetic, forming black armor on the body while its face began to appear.

"They would take several poisonous insects, place them in a sealed jar, and wait until they were forced to kill each other for survival until there was only one left. The final victor was known as a kodoku, and its body would be used as a hex to be placed on those who earned the shaman's ire. In a way, you could say that you are now kodoku, and your final opponent is the revenge of the defeated."

Finally, the shifting and bubbling ceased as the final piece of debris was absorbed into the entity, and as it lifted its head, the Sailor Senshi froze. They had seen its face before, during their first adventures facing the Dark Kingdom. Towards the end of the battles, a handful of defeated Golem Troopers merged together to form a single creature, one powerful enough to withstand even the most devastating of the Senshi's attacks. At one point, Sailor Jupiter attempted to destroy it with a technique so dangerous that it almost killed her, as well, and yet it still survived. Its strength was so uncanny, that Metaria even used it as a host body thinking it would have sufficient power to destroy the planet.

But that was only when it was made from a handful of foot soldiers. Even though it had the same blue porcelain face and crown of purple crystals, the sheer power it radiated was on an entirely different level. Together the Sailor Senshi were barely able to defeat it alone, but now it had the strength of not only many more Golem Troopers, but the Spectre Pure Army. Dark metallic armor adorned its body, with the black mask of the Spectre Pures acting as its elbow and knee joints. The amalgamated Golem Trooper's crystal shoulders stood out prominently through the armor and appeared fused to the armor, with black metal merged with the crystal's roots.

After what seemed like forever contemplating its return to life, the entity looked around and noticed that it was in the center of the metropolis of Tokyo's Shinjuku district. It was then that it remembered its purpose from the last time it was put on this Earth: complete, utter devastation. There was a flash in its dark eyes before it unleashed neon blue streaks of lightning from its face that ripped through the steel and glass of the business towers like a knife through toilet paper. Fire and debris rained down upon the streets and anyone who hadn't run to a safe distance, which definitely included the Saints and the Senshi. If not for Aries Mu quickly erecting a barrier, they would have been shredded by the shards of glass and twisted metal.

"Sailor Senshi...Bronze Saints...allow me to introduce you to the instrument of your demise: the Kodoku Spectre, Adamant Golem. Kodoku Adamant, claim your revenge and destroy all who stand in your path!"

Kodoku Adamant didn't need Fiore's command to act upon its primal instinct to annihilate everything it saw, and thus intensified its attack on the city by continuing to slice through the buildings and shops around it. "We...we can't just let him do what it wants," Makoto clenched her fist and put her memories of how easily it shrugged off her attacks the last time the Senshi encountered it, and that was when it was much weaker. "Shiryu, let's take him out!"

"Right," Shiryu nodded his head and focused his cosmo before unleashing it in a dragon-shaped stream of emerald power. "ROZAN SHORYU-HA!"

"JUPITER THUNDER DRAGON!"

The twin snakes of power intertwined around one another as it joined into a single dragon that raced towards Kodoku Adamant with its crackling teeth bared. Combined the two dragons were powerful enough to power several city blocks if harnessed into productive energy, and destructively they commanded enough energy to rip through army tanks and reduce the strongest earth-born metals to melted slag. Unfortunately for them, Kodoku Adamant's armor was not an Earth-born metal, nor was its crystalline hide made of the same material as an army tank.

Kodoku Adamant put its attack on the city on hold and looked down to see the two dragons of lightning lunging towards it, and lifted its diamond sword in front of it to brace itself. The two dragons were then absorbed into the blade like victims of a black hole, its energies trapped within it so that it glowed white. Watching Kodoku Adamant rear back, Sailor Mercury remembered the last time such a technique was used and quickly shoved Jupiter and Shiryu aside. It was an act of sacrifice brought about from years of sister-like friendship, and one that Mu made sure didn't end in tragedy.

As soon as Kodoku Adamant discharged the energy, Aries Mu erected a Crystal Wall to deflect the attack back at Kodoku Adamant, but the Wall was shattered in an explosion of flames and sparks. As a result, all fourteen of the heroes were sent careening in multiple directions, and Kodoku Adamant saw its chance to bring the battle up close. With its sword at the ready, the creature let out a shrill roar and charged forward as the Saints and Senshi stumbled back to its feet.

Hoping to stop its attack, Sailor Mercury again came to the rescue by surrounding the Kodoku Adamant in Mercury Aqua Mist. The intent was the blind Kodoku Adamant long enough for Phoenix Ikki to attack it from behind with a fiery fist using his awareness of cosmo to navigate through the fog. Once Ikki was in range, he discharged the cosmo in his fist with the attempt to melt his adversary, but his attack was effortlessly parried and returned in favor with a blast of energy from his eyes that dissipated the fog and sent Ikki to the ground.

Next was Cygnus Hyoga freezing the ground underneath the enemy in the same way Ami did to him earlier in the day. This disrupted its footing long enough for Sailor Mars and Phoenix Ikki to unleash a stream of fire to unleash a stream of fire from both sides while Ami focused her energy into a lethal freezing attack. By superheating its body and then freezing it once it reached its melting point, the heroes hoped to cause Kodoku Adamant to shatter. Even in the strange adventures they encountered, the Bronze Saints and Inner Senshi weren't averse to using basic science to solve their victories.

But no matter how much Sailor Mars and Phoenix Ikki burned, Kodoku Adamant walked through the flames as if it were a gentle breeze, and sent the two fire-wielding warriors sprawling away once more with a swipe of its sword. It had become so hot that its steps instantly melted the sheet of ice Hyoga placed on the ground, and gave Kodoku Adamant enough mobility to turn around and absorb the ice beam Ami shot at him. Unleashing the gathered energy in a freezing ray, Adamant Kodoku forced Sailor Mercury to retreat lest she be frozen by her own attack.

"NEBULA CHAIN!"

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

The next step was to bind Kodoku Adamant with the chain weapons of Andromeda Shun and Sailor Venus, and then channel every ounce of their cosmo through the chains to cause sparks and cries of pain to shoot out of the creature. With Kodoku Adamant bound together, the Moonlight Knight and Eagle Marin to slash at it with blades and cosmo-infused fingers. After a few seconds of punishment, Kodoku Adamant decided it had entertained them enough and fired off another stream of energy from its eyes, forcing everyone around it to back off.

Realizing it was no longer bound, the Moonlight Knight lifted his swords and clashed blades with Kodoku Adamant, releasing a shockwave that caused the ground around them to shake as if a sonic boom just erupted in Shinjuku. "Fall down, villain," Moonlight Knight hissed as he looked into the black slits that acted as Kodoku Adamant's eyes. "There is no way you can possibly win! Evil's only role in the story is to be defeated!"

With the Moonlight Knight deadlocked with it, Kodoku Adamant was left vulnerable to Sailor Pluto firing off a Dead Scream blast at its back, creating an explosion of dark energy that caused the pavement beneath them to implode and crack, to a point where the electricity in the surrounding block flickered for a moment. Kodoku Adamant groaned in accordance, but its armor was apparently tougher than that of Cancer Deathmask's Gold Cloth. It continued pushing against Moonlight Knight and forced him onto one knee, until it finally discharged another blast of energy from its eyes, firing directly into Moonlight Knight's face.

"PEGASUS RYUUSEI-KEN!"  
"EAGLE RYUUSEI-KEN!"

Master and pupil unleashed the technique that forged their bond in simultaneous fashion, forcing Kodoku Adamant to stumble forward before it could run the fallen Moonlight Knight through with its blade. As its attention turned on them, Shun and Minako wrapped their chains around the groaning Moonlight Knight's arms and pulled him back towards the group, where a horrified Sailor Moon immediately tended to him. By some miracle the Moonlight Knight was still breathing, but his forehead was bleeding profusely and staining his white silk outfit. "Mamoru...MAMORU," Sailor Moon frantically rocked his body back and forth until he groggily opened his eyes. "Mamoru...can you see me?"

"...Sailor Moon," he said after a long pause before attempting to stand back up, though he was very slow to do so. Gripping his face where he had been blasted, Moonlight Knight blinked once before his expression hardened in rage. "Sailor Moon...this is nothing! This is just the wound that shows the situation is serious! Soon you will save us all and lead us to victory in a blaze of-"

"Mamoru, please," Sailor Moon wrapped herself around Moonlight Knight and stunned him into silence with her embrace. "Let us deal with this! You're hurt bad! I...I don't want to lose you forever, before I have the chance to bring you back to me…"

For once, the talkative Moonlight Knight was bound to silence as he reached down with his free hand and gently stroked Usagi's altered hair. Since taking up the mantle of the white-clad warrior of justice, the memories of the body he inhabited had been mostly hidden, but the more he interacted with Sailor Moon, the more frequently brief flashes of who he was once was came back only to fade again. But the way Sailor Moon was holding him now, the memories were a little bit more clear.

But as warm as her embrace was, the Moonlight Knight shrugged it off and walked back to the battle with his sword drawn, even though the wound on his face was more excruciating than he could ever fathom. "Sailor Moon...I need to help. I know how much you care...and I know, this enemy isn't much fun to face. But…" With his sword flashing with power, the Moonlight Knight's limp turned to an awkward dash as he lifted his blade and lunged at Kodoku Adamant as it swatted away Eagle Marin and grabbed Seiya by his neck. "...I will lay my life on the line...to protect the people you care about!"

Using all of his power, the Moonlight Knight delivered a massive cut to Kodoku Adamant's back, causing it noticeable agony as it dropped Seiya and let out a pained moan. For a moment, everyone thought that it was the decisive blow, but a few seconds later, the true end result of the attack was made apparent. With its moan turning into a howl, Kodoku Adamant's cosmo boiled black and burst off of its body in a shockwave, sending everyone to their backs and knees as they attempted not to get swallowed up in its darkness.

Everyone except Sailor Moon, who throughout Kodoku Adamant's rampage had remained distance from the assault, not in fear of it, but in fear of a repeat of what happened the last time it appeared. The war with the Dark Kingdom ended not because of a heroic effort the Sailor Senshi, but because it was destroyed along with everything else on the planet...by Sailor Moon herself. Deep within her psyche, Sailor Moon possessed the power to create and destroy realities according to her whim, able to erase existences and rebuild them with equal ease. And seeing the creature that forced this power to re-awaken rampaging as freely as ever, Sailor Moon could feel that entity clawing at her brain, screaming to be let out.

"...En…no."

"This cosmo...Gesen," Shaina cautiously called out to her ally and subtly motioned to Sailor Moon as her brooch began to glow white while she started holding her head. "What's going on with Sailor Moon? Her cosmo is rising...no, it's changing, to something other than human."

"Stay out...I don't need you…"

"Finally," Gesen hummed, clenching his fist in anticipation. "Master Fiore and I have been trying to draw her out since we came here, so we could confirm for ourselves just how dangerous she could be. But no matter what we did, or what kind of atrocities we committed, Usagi would always keep her under wraps...but recently Master Fiore uncovered the reality she destroyed before creating the one we're in now, and so we've brought back the Adamant Golem and increased its power with your Spectre Pures. So, not only does it have sufficient power to bring our enemies to their knees…"

"En...Endy…"

Even Aries Mu and Sailor Pluto, with all of their vaunted might and protectiveness of their less experienced comrades, were cut down and blasted aside, giving Kodoku Adamant its pick of who to send to the afterlife first. Since Moonlight Knight was the first to get back up, only to fall down onto his knees with his sword keeping him from flopping down onto his face completely. He looked to his left and to his right, and saw the others helpless to do much of anything other than writhe in pain. Seiya was very slowly stirring behind the Kodoku Adamant as it walked past him, but even though it was doubtful he'd do much to save him.

"So...this is my role," the Moonlight Knight mused as Kodoku Adamant stood over him and lifted its blade for the killing blow. "I will be the sacrifice! I will be-"

"ENDYMION!"

"...it has the power to wake up the monster that lurks within Usagi Chiba. Tonight we're going to see if Sailor Moon has what it takes to defy her destiny as Galaxia! Tonight we'll see if she has what it takes to harness the power of Serenity!"

Finally, the entity that lurked within Sailor Moon's consciousness clawed its way to the surface, unable to watch her lover from centuries ago die yet again in another age. Sailor Moon was encased in white light as her fuku and weapon began to shift, lengthening and sharpening to become something decisively above what she used to be. When the light faded enough for her new form to be in view, the Inner Senshi gasped in awe and slight horror as they remembered what was going on.

Gone was Usagi Chiba, the bubbly friend and playful defender of justice. In her place stood Princess Serenity, holding her pink blade in front of her as her gloves and ribbons glowed with rainbow light. Serenity was Sailor Moon's alter ego that she drew power from, and when she assumed control of Sailor Moon's body and utilized the full power of the Silver Millennium Crystal in her brooch, she had zero regards for anything except the protection of her beloved Endymion and the complete destruction of anyone who stood in her way.

Kodoku Adamant halted its execution of the Moonlight Knight as it too remembered the last time it walked the Earth, where the Princess took it upon herself to step before it as its destructor. She failed that time, and Serenity Sailor Moon pointed her blade at the creature as it did the same to her. "You remember...don't you?" She said in a much darker tone than that of her host body's. "Good...I want you to remember this."

As Kodoku Adamant charged towards her with its blade raised for murder, the other Senshi quickly gathered their allies and gave the Princess some fighting room. The Inner Senshi remembered quite clearly how their Princess was nothing less than a force of nature when incensed, and how helpless they were to do anything but watch her erase the planet from existence when her grief consumed her. In that respect, their mission to protect the Princess was a veiled way of saying that they needed to protect her so that she wouldn't have to protect herself.

But there was one who insisted he stay and help. "I can't let Usagi take that thing all by herself, no matter how strong her cosmo has become," Seiya said as he ran towards the sword fight with his only his fists and Pegasus Cloth to assist. You guys rest up and jump in when you're ready! I'll make sure Usagi doesn't have to take that monster on alone!"

"No," Shaina left Gesen's side and charged Seiya with her claws bared once more. "Seiya, tonight you will die by my hand! Don't worry, though: your friends will follow you to the underworld soon enough after the Kodoku Spectre rips them to shreds!"

"Shaina, wait!"

Gesen's warning came too late. As soon as Shaina charged forward in Serenity's general direction, she was marked for death. With a swipe of her blade, Serenity sent a pink wave of cutting energy directly aimed at Shaina. Realizing what the wave of lethal cosmo would do if it touched her, Shaina quickly jumped out of the way, but not fast enough for the aura of the slicing energy to cause her mask to crack, splinter, and finally shatter. She should have been fortunate it was her mask that was split and not her head, but Shaina shrieked madly as if she were in her death throes, clutching her feminine features.

Holding his arms out as Shaina stumbled towards him, Gesen places his hands on her shoulders and reached to her face. "Did she scar you? I told you not to-"

"DON'T LOOK AT ME," Shaina screamed before pushing Gesen away as she felt Seiya's cosmo rapidly approaching her. Covering her face with one hand, Shaina looked up and took a mad swipe at Seiya like a cornered animal. "Seiya, if you have the courage, follow me to the next block! We'll settle this one-on-one, away from this battlefield where the other Saints will surely die at the hands of the Kodoku Spectre!"

"Shaina, I...I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Seiya said softly as he walked forward with open arms. "Are you injured? Come on, I'll take you to an ambulance, there's bound to be one past the barri-"

"Stop it! You disgust me," Shaina hissed as her focused her cosmo into her hand while her emerald eyes flashed with intensity. "I'll kill y-URK…"

The green-haired Silver Saint fell silent as Gesen knocked her unconscious with a chop to the back of her head, catching her as she fell forward and slinging her over his shoulder. "Pegasus Saint, I will take her to safety. You should worry about attending your final destination."

"Thank you, but...why help me?"

"I'm not helping you: Shaina and I just created Kodoku Adamant to kill you and the others, assuming Serenity doesn't do it first," Gesen shot back before turning his back to Seiya. "You're going to see for yourself what kind of monster Usagi has lurking within her. Whether you choose to help her or help Kodoku Adamant will make no difference, because either way you and your friends are going to die tonight. I'm just keeping a promise I made to her that we'd both be alive to celebrate our enemy's demise."

"I see," Seiya nodded his head before turning back to the conflict between Serenity and Kodoku Adamant. "Gesen...thank you. Please take care of Shaina."

"Hmph," Gesen scoffed before teleporting away with Shaina in tow. "Have a nice death, Pegasus Saint…"

With Shaina out of the way, Seiya charged back to the conflict and drove his fist into Kodoku Adamant's face as hard as he could: force sufficient enough to turn large boulders into gravel, and to cause Kodoku Adamant to stumble to the side to clear some place between it and Serenity. Seiya turned to the princess to say something, but looking into her eyes he quickly realized that interfering might not have been such a good idea after all. In the brief glimpse he had of the brainwashing delusion that caused the Saints and Senshi to attack each other, he had borne witness to the horrors that Galaxia would one day bring to the universe. In Serenity's eyes, he saw that same vision, and wondered what was going to happen to everyone now that she had awoken.

"...Pegasus," Serenity said softly before pointing her blade at him. Seiya's eyes wavered if he wondered if he'd have to fight the woman who had become a close friend, but then her blade turned to the left and pointed at Kodoku Adamant. "...let's go."

"...heh...alright," a smile came over Seiya's face as Serenity offered her alliance and he psionically commanded his cloth to unbind and return to its usual state resting on his wrist. It was not a sign of submission, but preparation for summoning the "bigger guns" that were granted to him so that he could protect Saori and the world she loved. "SAGITTARIUS GOLD CLOTH...DESCEND!"

At his command, a gold star plummeted to from the sky to the battlefield, prompting Seiya to jump high into the air as the winged armor of Sagittarius bonded to his body, sheathing him in with the power of the Gold Saint just as Mu and Deathmask brandished. With his golden armor shimmering in the lights of the fire, city lights, and stars of his surrounding, Seiya lifted his bow and dived towards Kodoku Adamant as it pushed away Serenity and turned to him.

The impact of their collision sent another ripple across the battlefield, generating a massive gust of of wind as Kodoku Adamant parried Seiya's attack and they found themselves at a standstill. "Sailor Moon, now's your chance," Seiya shouted as he pushed against Kodoku Adamant and planted his feet on the ground for more leverage. "Let's take this guy down!"

With her sword glowing with pink energy, Serenity Sailor Moon delivered a swift cut to Kodoku Adamant's backside, leaving a deep gash in its armor and forcing it to push Seiya off of it so that it could take a swing at Serenity. As Serenity parried its blade, Seiya took the opportunity to continue attacking its back with slashes from his bladed bow. With his increased cosmo and the holy metal of the Gold Cloth, Seiya was able to leave marks of his own, and together the two warriors hacked away at Kodoku Adamant drawing forth sparks as its armor clashed against their weapons.

Realizing that it had no other option, Kodoku Adamant unleashed another shockwave of dark energy, powerful enough to cause both Serenity and the Sagittarius Saint to be buffeted away live leaves and giving the creature enough time to blast them both with death rays from its eyes. "Right...I guess I don't have a choice now," Seiya mumbled as he summoned the golden arrow to his bow in a flash of energy. Gripping the arrow in his hand, he looked up to see Serenity charging her cosmo to such a degree that the ground around them vibrated. It would appear that she was done holding back, as well.  
For a brief moment, Seiya considered how he would only have one shot with his arrow for a kill, and he remembered the psychic virus that showed him the dark future that Serenity could potentially bring about as Galaxia. When he looked into her eyes, Seiya could detect no trace of Usagi within them, and Serenity was letting him help her on a whim. Even now, she was preparing to use an attack that would easily level a city block even if it hit Kodoku Adamant directly. Seiya had a responsibility to protect mankind from all threats, but if it came down to it, would he be able to pull the quiver against Sailor Moon, even if it were clear that she was only a shell of her former self?

"Usagi!"

Just as Serenity was about to unleash her ultimate attack, the other Senshi came to her side and held onto the handle of her blade along with her, wrapping their hands around hers. "Mercury...Mars...Jupiter...Venus...Pluto," she whispered as she looked to her generals...no, not her generals. These were her comrades who fought with her and protected her from having to use this power. She allowed herself to take over Usagi's body so that she could protect them. "Why are you-"

"Princess...let us help you, " Pluto said softly as she pointed her staff in Kodoku Adamant's direction. "I know you're disappointed in us...I know we were supposed to make sure you didn't have to wake up again because your servants have proven unable to protect Endymion. I can only imagine how embarrassed you must be to see him devolve into the raving fool he is today...but…"

"But we'll do everything in our power to make sure he comes back to you, Usagi," Ami stated as she and the others pointed their glowing hands at Kodoku Adamant for a joint attack. "You don't have to do this alone. Together there's no one that can stand up to us! Together, we'll get rid of this guy for good."

"And if he does come back again, we'll make sure to send him back to Hell over and over again," Makoto added. "Usagi...we're your friends. Lean on us…"

"...and we'll make sure that we don't let you down again," Rei's hands burned with fire as her words were heated with passion. "We all have people we need to protect. We all know what will happen if we don't stop this guy here and now. But don't think for a second we're going to let you take all of this on by yourself!"

"Mars…"

"Princess, if you let us help you, we'll make sure you don't have to wake up again. You can go back to dreaming about being with Endymion, because Usagi will be back with Mamoru and everything will be as it should be. We'll make sure you'll never have to cry again…"

"Venus…"

A seventh hand wrapped around the group's, one that pushed Serenity back to the threshold that separated her persona from that of her host body's. With this hand, and those calm eyes looking into her own, she was once again just "Sailor Moon," the role that Serenity and Usagi shared to protect the man at her side now. "...Sailor Moon," he said with warmth before turning to Kodoku Adamant. "I swore to protect you, but you always protect me, don't you? This time...let's protect each other."

"Everyone," Sailor Moon said with a smile before turning back to Kodoku Adamant as it charged a crackling dark ball of cosmo on the tip of its blade. "Thank you...let's finish this!"

Combining their forces, the Sailor Senshi unleashed a ray of power that clashed against the massive orb of energy that fell towards them like a giant boulder teetering from a cliff. Yet even with the power of Serenity and the combined might of the Senshi, Kodoku Adamant seemed to have the upper hand. With every second that passed, victory seemed less and less certain, and Sailor Moon's expression gradually began to harden back to the cold visage of the Princess. It would seem that even the support of friends wouldn't be enough to stop her from losing control…

...until the Saints stood beside her and began to focus their cosmo into the stream the Senshi had created. Aries Mu, Eagle Marin, Phoenix Ikki, Andromeda Shun, Dragon Shiryu, Cygnus Hyoga, and Sagittarius Seiya stood side by side with the Sailor Senshi with Seiya having sheathed his bow and instead focusing all of his energy into that of his comrades. "Sailor Senshi," Seiya said with a smile as he turned to Usagi, "it's been an honor fighting by your side the past few days. Just don't forget that this is everyone's fight now!"

"Pegasus...Seiya…"

"It's unfortunate we never had a chance to finish our dinner at that Greek restaurant, Dr. Meioh. You seem as exceptional a woman as you are a Senshi. Perhaps after this is over, before we go our separate ways, we can have dinner at a place of your choosing. I'll pay again, of course: consider it an apology for last time's interruption."

"Mu…"

"We still need to have that concert together, Ms. Aino! Playing alongside you...fighting alongside you has been a great honor. Hopefully we'll have a chance to make music together again someday!"

"Shun…"

"No one has ever come close to beating me in the cabs, Dr. Mizuno. When this is over, I'm going to train hard so that we'll see each other again at Super Battle Opera. I look forward to seeing you win a Nobel Prize someday: maybe one day I'll try that snowboarding gig like I was talking about earlier."

"Hyoga...thank you."

"Don't worry, Makoto, I'm not the kind of martial artist who complains about being beaten by a girl. You're every bit as strong as I hoped you'd be. Your friends are in good hands with someone like you to watch over them."

"Shiryu...you're not so bad yourself!"

"Moonlight Knight...your mission has reaffirmed my belief that I must continue to follow my own path. It'd be easy for us to just resign to our fates and tell them how we feel...but we care about them too much for that, don't we? Don't lose sight! Finish the mission!"

"I will, Eagle Marin! You, as well!"

"...Rei Hino…"

"...don't worry, Ikki, you don't have to say anything. Let's just promise to protect our friends for now, and then we can worry about settling the score."

"That's good enough for now," Ikki said with a grin before hardened his expression and turning back to the stream of power. "Everyone...let's show this freak show just who he's messing with!"

"GALAXIAN PLANET STORM!"

Finally, the rush of energy was too much for Kodoku Adamant's attack to withstand, and it burst like a bubble and thus relieved the creature of its only countermeasure. The beam ripped through its hide, breaking it apart until there was nothing left. When the beam faded, the creature had been completely vaporized: there was not even a grand explosion to signal its defeat. Thankfully, the Moonlight Knight was too exhausted to point it out, and the other heroes were too tired to mention it.

As the threat of Kodoku Adamant faded, the prism-like glow of Serenity faded and Usagi finally reclaimed control of her body, blinking once before her transformation faded and her hair returned to its usual black color. The other Saints and Senshi followed suit, undoing their transformations while Moonlight Knight and Eagle Marin fell down onto one knee and took deep, concentrated breaths.

"We...we did it?" Eagle Marin gasped in disbelief?

"We did," Moonlight Knight nodded his head before drawing his sword and pointing it into the sky. "SUPER HERO TIME WINS THE DAY! EVERYONE, GET INTO YOUR BATTLE POSES!"

"Maybe later, Mamo-chan," Usagi said with a smile before stretching and giving a thumbs up to Seiya. "But you're right! Super Hero Time took care of business! Isn't that right, Seiya?"

"You bet, Usagi," Seiya said with a grin, returning the thumbs up with one of his own. "Now, I don't know about you, but I haven't eaten since lunch! Let's find a place to eat before everything closes!"


	11. Epilogue

"I see...that is unfortunate."

"The Pope sends his gratitude for offering your services, but he has decided it would be best if we went our separate ways," Shaina explained to the hooded leader of the Sailor Senshi's enemy. "If Sanctuary has a need for you, they will contact your forces, but for now, it is recommended that you stay out of our way. Spectre Pures are difficult to create and we wasted too many of them for a plan that didn't pan out."

"There's no need to be so crude about it, Ms. Shaina," Fiore said with a grin. "I told you just how dangerous the Sailor Senshi could be, and the Pope gave me several details about the competence of the Bronze Saints. We probably would have won if the Princess-"

"The Princess was your end game, one that you didn't tell the Pope about. That is why he has terminated our professional relationship," Shaina interjected, pulling her hand away when Fiore tried to exchange a handshake. Turning away from the alien, Shaina clenched her fists. "Maybe if you anticipated her arrival, I could have finally taken my revenge on Seiya. Now I have been doubly disgraced by my defeat...and my unmasking to another man."

"...Gesen," Fiore called his subordinate who had been watching nearby. Waiting for the cyborg to walk towards him and give a salute with his arm crossing his chest and a bow of his head, Fiore gave his order before teleporting away. "Settle your differences here and return to the base. We'll prepare our next plan this evening."

"At once, Master," Gesen bowed once more as Fiore vanished and he turned to Shaina. Though their time together was short, Gesen considered Shaina more of a comrade than he did Uranus and Neptune. Unlike the rogue Senshi, Shaina was a loyal ally in their fight against their enemies, and it wasn't until Seiya became directly involved that she deviated from the plan Fiore laid out for them. Gesen was quite aware that Shaina was a renowned strategist in her own right, but her honor prevented her from stepping out of line.

Gesen also realized that he had inadvertently wronged her by catching a glimpse of her face when he potentially saved her life from Serenity's wrath. He remembered the tense conversation they had in Shaina's apartment about what the secrecy of her true face meant to her, and being that it was unlikely they were going to see each other again after this, Gesen came up with a way to make things right with her.

"Ophiuchus Shaina, please turn around."

"I'm not in the mood to fight you, Gesen," Shaina growled. "Leave now, and I won't have to rip out your power core and shove it up your backside."

"Your warrior code demands that you must kill me because I saw your face. I would like to offer a resolution so that we don't have to come to blows," Gesen replied with uncharacteristic softness to his metallic tone, caused Shaina to turn around and face him as he instructed. "I told you earlier, the reason no one has seen who I am behind my helmet is because somewhere out there, there's a younger me waiting to be exploited by my enemies. By showing you what's under the mask, I am entrusting our safety to you."

"...you do realize that if I wished it, I could hunt down that younger you if you showed me your face?"

"I do...but you are a warrior of honor. You understand that what I'm about to show you is something that only you and Fiore will have knowledge of," Gesen said lowly as he reached for the clips of his helmet. As he pressed down on them, a loud hiss emerged from his head along with a blast of highly pressurized air. "You asked me earlier...what my connection is with Usagi? Why I always call her by her first name rather than 'Sailor Moon?'"

The helmet was removed and held at chest level, and Shaina and Gesen were finally even. Shaina had hypotheses about what was underneath Gesen's mask, but she didn't figure him to be such a handsome specimen: apart from a handful of wires and tubes attached to his neck and running into the interior of his suit, he had soft dark hair and a beautiful complexion and his eyes…

...his eyes, were the same as Sailor Moon.

"I am Shingo Tsukino," Gesen said before putting his helmet back on. "I bear the cursed fate of being Usagi Chiba's little brother...and her executioner."

It was an enjoyable evening, but all things had to eventually come to an end.

After the defeat of Kodoku Adamant, the Saints and Senshi celebrated at a Greek restaurant several train stops away from the battlefield in Shinjuku, being careful to de-morph in a private area so that they wouldn't have unnecessary stress in the morning. The food was delicious, and more importantly to the more voracious eaters on the two teams, being paid for completely out of Mu's deep pockets. The main highlight of the meal was a wine that Mu recommended, and as such several members of the team woke up the next morning with a nasty hangover.

After a day of recuperating, the two teams agreed to meet together in the late afternoon with one final discussion on how they could help each other in the future. Given the way Sanctuary operated, it was unlikely that Fiore would be collaborating with them again anytime soon, especially given the sound thrashing they received at the hands of their enemies. Therefore, the Saints and Senshi were going to spend the remainder of the day exchanging contact information, but also preparing to say goodbye in case this would be the last time they worked together for the foreseeable future.

"Seiya."

"Hey, Saori," Seiya said quietly as he looked out into the harbor. "Were you able to help Usagi's husband?"

"Whatever happened to him is something that even I can't undo, at least not at my current level.," the violet-haired teenager lamented as she stood next to Seiya leaning against the railing of the walkway and looked out into the sea. "Hopefully the Senshi will be able to figure out what's wrong with him and come up with a solution: it's clear that he still loves his wife and his daughter, but he can't go back unless he remembers the life he had before he became the Moonlight Knight."

"Hopefully," Seiya repeated distantly as Saori moved closer to him. "Saori...that transformation Sailor Moon went through against that Spectre...that was the entity from the nightmare that psychic virus showed me. I shrugged it off because I figured it was a trick from the enemy to turn us against each other...but now I wonder if it was just Fiore showing us the nightmares he's gone through in his own time."

"Well, you've spent more time with her than I have. What do you think are her true colors?"

"...I don't know anymore," Seiya said with a sigh. "When I looked into her eyes, it confirmed everything that nightmare was trying to tell me, that inside of Sailor Moon is a monster that will destroy the universe in a fit of rage. For a brief second, I thought about using the Gold Cloth's arrow on her, because the depth of her cosmo frightened me that much."

"But you didn't, and everything is OK," Saori said cheerfully. "Stop worrying about what might happen and focus on what's already happened. You and the others have made strong allies that are willing to help us the next time our paths cross, and you sent Sanctuary packing again. Soon we'll be strong enough to go to Greece and stop the Pope personally, but for now…"

"...for now, let's worry about finding another safe hiding place for you, Saori," Seiya said with a smile as he turned away from the view of the harbor and walked back to the group. "I haven't even told Jabu that you've been hiding with Zamir Industries, he's been going nuts wondering where you are. You should have seen Tatsumi yell at us when he started a duel for me trying to pry the information out."

After saying her goodbyes with the Moonlight Knight, Usagi turned back to her friends and the Saints while they waited for Seiya and Saori to come to them. Seiya wasn't the only frightened by Serenity's return: Usagi had experienced many nightmares about her alter-ego consuming her since Fiore had revealed his mission for being in the present. Unchecked, Princess Serenity would destroy the Earth and every other planet within her reach, and this was something that made Usagi wonder many times if she was better off surrendering to Fiore and taking whatever punishment he had in store for her.

But as she held her daughter in her arms, Usagi realized that she had too much to live for to let things come to that. Princess Serenity did not define her, nor did her life as Sailor Moon. She was not Princess Serenity, nor was she the cosmic tyrant Galaxia like Fiore and Gesen claimed. She was Usagi Chiba, loving wife and caring mother, as well as the guardian of love and justice Sailor Moon. Next to her weren't just fellow Sailor Senshi, they were friends she met in junior high school that had become almost like sisters to her.

And across from them was Seiya and the Bronze Saints. Like Usagi, Seiya's legacy was woven into the stars as he was preceded by many other Pegasus Saints with similar roles in the stage of history. But Seiya was more than just the latest in a line of Pegasus Saints: he was a kind young man and loyal, courageous friend that not only fought for the protection of Athena, but for the well-being of his fellow Bronze Saints. To him, Saori was not a goddess that needed to be worshipped, but a foster sister who was very much dear to him, and would have protected regardless of his destiny as a Saint.

On this evening, the Inner Senshi and Bronze Saints shook hands and said their farewells, but the young men and women behind the costumes swore that if they ever needed each other, they would always have their backs. It was more than just a rivalry now: it was a bond of friendship that would no longer be broken by simple spells and tricks. And that bond of friendship, Usagi and Seiya swore to themselves, would be one that lasted long after their legend ended.

"Everyone...let's celebrate!"


End file.
